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Baby Boomers
Someone recently asked me if I had a particular theme that ran through all of my presentations at national conferences. I said, without hesitation, “continuous progress”. There is the process of change and then there is the process of maintaining change. Beyond maintaining change is making continuous progress.
Although the making of continuous progress is a desirable theme for an organization, I usually frame my work toward the individual. My belief is that, if you have an organization with a considerable number of people who are making continuous progress in their lives, the organization will continuously progress. This isn’t necessarily true. Organization can have management structures that prevent continuous progress regardless of the number of forward moving staff. However, I believe that this is the exception rather than the rule. Continuous progress is not an all or none process. In fact, one can be struggling with change in one area of his or her life, making change in other areas, maintaining change in still other areas, while making continuous progress in other areas. For example, I have a friend who is struggling to lose weight, but has managed to keep her cholesterol down using dietary interventions. She has managed to gain two promotions at work within three years and has progressed continuously in her artistic abilities through lessons and through practice. The key is to bring as many areas of one’s life as possible into the continuous progress category. As the president of a local Toastmaster’s chapter, I have the pleasure of seeing club members make continuous progress in their public speaking abilities. I then speak about how to take this frame-of-reference and generalize it to other areas of life where change has been made and maintained. The results can be quite amazing.
If you think about it, the topic of making continuous progress is especially interesting to Baby Boomers. They are at that point in life where they have either retired or are thinking about retirement. Some believe that they have peaked and are already taking about “back in the day….”. Change and maintaining change may seem more of a struggle. However, with some stimulating areas of continuous progress in one’s life, new avenues open-up and new possibilities appear on the horizon.
Thinking
On occasion, we find ourselves wondering if our mental
abilities are decreasing. Keys seem to be more
difficult to keep track of and appointments occasionally escape us. Are we beginning to develop early
Alzheimers or dementia? Then we
say to ourselves, we are older; we have more to think about.
The more practical among us learn how to compensate for
whatever reason we believe that we may be slipping. Some begin to use Post-It notes on the door to remind them
to take shirts to the cleaners and keep a more detailed calendar. Crossroad puzzles, brain games and video
games (chess and card games) are seen as ways to keep some semblance of a
mental edge.
Those who wish to challenge themselves can decide to take
the big challenge. Learn how to
fully use your cell phone, digital camera, printer/scanner/copier, or other
electronic device. Very few people
over 40 every do this. Of those
who have taken this advice, most have found this to be a glimpse into a new
world.
If you want a fresh start, purchase an I-Mac or Mac Book and
an I-Phone. Patiently enter all of
your contact and calendar information.
Enter your to-do lists into your calendar. Place everything into the Apple Mobile Me system so that
when you make a change the phone or computer, it will sync to the other
automatically.
Load your I-Phone with useful and fun applications from the
Apps Store.
Slowly begin to work with pictures, videos and music. Whether you are retired or working,
this move toward personal technology will be rewarding.
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