By Jim Selman | Bio Ah, January 1st, the new beginning and a chance to finally get it right this year. Or is it? Perhaps it is the End of the Beginning. When we began as a nation, we were full of hope and idealism. We believed that every person could thrive and prosper if they worked hard and learned from their past mistakes. Today, can we honestly say we believe that hard work will take us in the direction of our dreams? What happened to us? Where are we going? [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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By Jim Selman | Bio
As long as I can remember, people have been
telling me to relax, enjoy the moment, smell the roses and just take it
easy—to live life one day at a time. That’s a challenge when we’re
younger, when we have many goals and not a lot of history under our
belt. As we age, we eventually realize we’re not going to accomplish
everything. So what happens when we realize there are a lot of
expectations we have that will never be fulfilled?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Jim Selman | Bio
I have a friend who is really upset because
she feels she was pressured into a particularly large purchase and not
appreciated afterwards. It occurs to me that this could be a concern for
many single women, especially as they grow older. We read daily of
various scams to help older people part with their money. While I don’t
think that women are the only ones affected, they do seem to be targeted
more often than not. In the case of my friend, the issue wasn’t one of
the salesmen being dishonest, but simply not being particularly
sensitive to her feelings. Add to this that he was shortsighted in his
failure to say "Thank you" appropriately (which could be interpreted as a
seeming lack of respect for a senior) and you have an 'upset' waiting
to happen.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By 2012, 50% of Americans will be over 60. Most of us can expect the gift of an additional 30 years of life. What will we do with this gift? Surviving old age is not enough. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Jim Selman | Bio
We've
been assaulted lately by political pundits and statisticians telling us
what will happen this week. It is easy to roll over and assume they
know what they are talking about. So why bother to vote at all? Just sit
back and watch the process on TV. This is a particularly easy
rationalization for cynics and those who've become resigned that they
don't make a difference anyway. Most of the hype and hysteria seems to be aimed at younger voters. It is assumed that we older voters[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Leadership
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By Jim Selman | Bio
Stephanie Chen, a writer for CNN, recently published " No Retirement for These Older Folks, Just Work"
about older workers and the fact that more and more people have to keep
working well beyond their 'retirement age'. For some, this is purely a
function of economic necessity. For others, it is a choice. The piece
included two examples, a 91-year-old postal worker and a 101-year-old
legislative employee who are still going strong. If we're to believe the
predictions from Washington DC, everyone is going to be working longer
as a function of keeping Social Security solvent. The examples in Stephanie Chen's article are exceptions that prove the rule that states[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Jim Selman | Bio
Someone
said to me in a meeting yesterday that there are a billion blogs. The
number seemed high, so I did what we all do these days. I went to Google
and in about 30 seconds of looking at “How many Blogs are there”, I was
assured there are closer to 100 million, with about 175 thousand new
ones being created every day. So while the billion estimate was a bit
exaggerated, it is obvious that there are a LOT of blogs. This got me thinking: why so many?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Jim Selman | Bio
When I was growing up, you needed to be master
the 3 Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) in order to be educated.
Today we need to master a new 3 set of ‘Rs’: Rights, Rewards and
Responsibilities. When I first started traveling to other countries in the 1970s, the
conversation about the USA was always in a context of respect and even
admiration—even when criticizing certain aspects. But for the last 10
years or so, I have noticed that the conversations are changing. Fewer
people are envious of who we are and our way of life. More and more see
us as recalcitrant, self-centered, parochial and unable to recover
whatever it was that made us great in the post-WWII years. Most people
across the globe have access to the same newspapers, the same media
channels and the same websites that we do. The prevailing and
unavoidable conclusion being touted from many of these sources:
governance in the USA is a mess![ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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By Jim Selman | Bio
Do we have an economic problem or a spiritual problem?
My teacher and friend Dr. Fernando Flores was a candidate for the
Presidency of Chile. In one of his speeches, he declared, “We don’t have
an economic problem so much as we have a spiritual one…we’ve forgotten
who we are…we lack a vision and purpose for our nation”. He dropped out
of the presidential race, but this phrase has stayed with me. I think it
is true of most nations, including our own.
There is a maxim that states, “A vision without action is just a dream.
Action without a vision is a nightmare.” A vision provides a context, a
ground of being for our lives. A vision is not a goal: it is the
organizing principle for whatever goals we may have. A vision is a place
to stand—the future as possibility—a place to ‘come from’ in all that
we undertake.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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