By Jim Selman | Bio
I work with organizations that are attempting
to change. At the beginning of working with a new client, I point out
what’s missing for any organization that has recurring or seemingly
intractable problems: what’s missing is a different way of observing.
Whether we’re talking about a company, a community or a continent, a new
perspective always gives us an opening to create new possibilities,
have new choices and take new actions: a new way of observing the world
effectively gives us a different future than some variation of ‘more of
the same’. We need to stop asking what the problems are and start
asking why they persist. When we do, we begin to realize that we
have a paradigm problem. Until we deal with that, none of our seemingly
intractable problems—from staggering debt to unending war, climate
change to the underlying causes of the mortgage crises—can be solved.
Albert Einstein expressed this concisely when he said that sometimes our
problems cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we
created them.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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By Jim Selman | Bio
I
want to create a new organization to stamp out stupidity and
indifference and restore common decency and goodwill into society. I
think I'll call it the National Organization of Pissed-Off Elders
(N.O.P.E.).
What’s pissing us off?
A lot more than just ‘aging’ issues like Social Security, pharmaceuticals and our sex lives.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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 By Shae Hadden | Bio
I’ve been looking for a way to be free all my
life. My entire search has, unfortunately, been focused on the
practical aspect of ‘holding on’ to whatever I thought would give me
freedom: a belief in some system or way of thinking, money,
possessions, favorite books that contained ideas that were
‘liberating’, any activity that loosened up my body and mind, people I
loved. But now almost nothing is certain in my life, and a deep desire
to let go of my attachments to everything and everyone propels me
forward.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
The early Boomer retirees are rewriting
the book of what ‘freedom from having to earn a living’ means. Of
course, there is the rush to enjoy some of the perks of our new-found
freedom. But once the lustre of all that unscheduled time wears off,
we're faced with the realization that retirement can also mean the
freedom to take on those issues we either didn’t have time for when we
were younger or were afraid to risk what we had going at the time for.
But for most, this freedom means the opportunity to learn, to engage in
some form of creativity and to step up to the challenge and opportunity
of ‘Eldering’—being of service to the community and to those that
follow, using our life experience and wisdom for the betterment of our
world.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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In the 1970s, I belonged to The World Future Society. I even toyed with
the idea of becoming a ‘futurist’. I vaguely recall that there was a
magazine on the subject and various intellectuals were trying to get
prediction raised to the status of a science. According to Wired
magazine, the Society still exists and there are people who call
themselves professional futurists, but the numbers are shrinking and
their status seems to be less than in the past—primarily because the
future is increasingly less predictable (if it ever was). Yet, why do people continue to seek answers to what will the future be?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Shae Hadden | Bio
My life is my game—no one else’s. And I create the rules. What freedom,
what choices, what responsibility! Playing ‘by the rules’ means playing
according to choices I’ve made about what’s ‘best’ for me. And that’s
left me in a quandary, because many ‘old rules’ don’t fit anymore. It’s
time to examine them, keep the ones that still suit me and replace any
unworkable ones. So here I am, wondering how to pick and choose from
the rules I have been playing by. Yet is it possible for us to know what choices, what rules will be ‘right’?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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I was speaking with a friend recently about age in general, how we
‘remember’ our lives and the power of memories to affect our day-to-day
experience. From one perspective, I think that living in the present is
the point of living—experientially at least. When we are present, our
memories are just memories and don’t affect us either positively or
negatively. Our memories are our ‘story’, and we can relate to our past
as just that—a story. On the other hand, our moods and our memories are
very connected. While the past is the past, it can have an impact on
the present. Memory can enrich our lives and allow us to ‘relive’ happy
moments or it can displace and diminish our lives, burying us in
caskets of regret, resentment, fear and guilt.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Personal Empowerment
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Today is the day for fools, foolishness and merry pranks played on
friends, colleagues and neighbours. Because of the abundance of April
Fools’ hoaxes in the media, many people distrust news reports and
advertisements launched on this day. No such luck here at Serene Ambition…although,
as in some countries like Britain, we do believe that jokes pulled
after noon turn the prankster into the ‘fool’. Instead, we’d like to
share a few famous insights into learning how to live wisely.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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Tom Brokaw in a recent AARP op-ed piece
pointed to the obvious fact that as the Boomers retire they’re going to
change our social and economic reality in profound ways. Lots of others
are predicting the coming crunch associated with questions of how to
pay astronomical healthcare and Social Security costs with a shrinking
workforce and tax base. Consider that about 4 or 5 of us have supported
one retiree over the course of most of our career. When we retire, a
couple of our offspring will be supporting us—as well as paying
additional costs for energy, security and cleaning up and protecting
the environment. You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to realize that
something doesn’t add up.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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I had a great conversation this past weekend with my son Clarke. We
were talking about the differences between ‘his generation’ and ‘my
generation’ (the Boomers), and he shared a perspective I thought was
extraordinary and which made me realize our two age groups advocate two
very different interpretations of reality.
He believes that one of the biggest problems his generation faces is
themselves—because they have grown up in a time in which they have been
constantly bombarded with the marketing machine’s message that the world is custom-made to fulfill whatever you want.
He and his peers have grown up in an era of customized everything—from
their local Starbucks experience to designing their desktop and
personalizing their clothing to match current fads and their own
tastes. The message is always, “How do you want it to be?”. This
proliferation of choices and possibilities is wonderful and convenient
(and obviously good for businesses and marketers). But is it good to
believe that your personal whims and preferences should be the
organizing principle for your life? [ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Wisdom in Action
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