Category: Uncategorized (Page 39 of 39)

Learning new technology.

02/09/2015 / Laura

In the e-book “Better With Age”, retired attorney-turned author John Lefevere spins a tale of a technologically deficient baby boomer fearful of losing his executive position in an upcoming merger. He decides to turn the tables on the younger executives who want him out, and begins secretly educating himself on everything from smartphones to sending tweets and beyond.

What happens next?

Scandal, death, and vindication…just another day in the corporate world! But it brings up an interesting question for anyone of boomer age and beyond:

What do we do when everyone around us seems to be light years ahead in technology—and we need to catch up fast?

Can it be done, especially if we were never tech-savvy to begin with?

Lefevere gives his motivation behind the writing of “Better With Age”: “The impact of losing a job when you are most vulnerable, such as five to ten years from retirement, when you have financial responsibilities can be devastating, particularly if you are in the ‘sandwich’ situation: supporting children/grandchildren and also your parents. The threat of losing the job can be just as stressful, and possibly more so….If you’re not up-to-date digitally, these stresses can increase even more.”

Personally, I know I’ve taken some steps in the right direction, but I also know I’m a dinosaur in many areas. (I can hear a niece and nephew laughing.) I try to keep up with what need to know in my profession, but often hear new terms and lingo and wonder what the heck is that, and do I really need to know?

But often, the answer is yes. I do need to know. I need to do some research, read an industry publication, and/or call on someone a lot smarter than me and get the dirt. I owe that to those I do business with. And I don’t want to be left behind.

But there are some things about which I remain stubborn.

I don’t like the idea of always being reachable by text, email, or a phone call. (Is it really so vital that it needs to be handled this exact instant?)

I don’t like seeing the act of thinking being replaced by a software product that will take care of that for me. (A turn of a phrase…an illustration…an original design…you can’t replace the value of considering how something feels in your gut. That’s what pencils and erasers are for.)

I really don’t like trying to have a meeting, business call, or working luncheon and know that everyone is playing with their devices while we’re supposed to be sharing ideas and information. (Doing one thing at a time really does bring better results, you whippersnappers!)

Still, if you are faced with the stress of being unable to keep up in your profession, it can feel overwhelming. What’s good to know is that you can keep learning, no matter your age.

Most of us older adults learn best with one-on-one, hands-on teaching. We like to learn things in small bites. I confess I’ve always been this way…show me, let me try it, and don’t give me 20 new things at once.

Chances are, you already know more than you think you do…you may drive with a GPS in your car. Check the stock market on your smartphone. See your grandbaby over Skype. Play computer games.

So maybe it’s taking an adult education course, either in person or online. Reading some computer magazines. Spending a few hours in the library. Meeting with someone willing to walk you through some new technological opportunities.

Lefevere has this message for boomers: “You cannot let age discrimination and/or falling behind digitally force you out of the workplace. Don’t ever give up. There are benefits in terms of knowledge and experience that make you ‘Better With Age.'”

You can do it. And of course, as the older and wiser person in the scenario, you can be a great example to a younger person of the value of listening, thinking, and working hard.

“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”

Gertrude Stein

Give Your Time This Season.

12/04/2014 / Laura

The season of giving is upon us, and with it, many opportunities to be overwhelmed, depressed, and caught in countless traffic jams. As we get older it’s a little easier to understand Ebenezer Scrooge’s mood with all the frenzy that is happening around us. Or if we’re alone or far from family, it can feel very lonely.

A surefire way to turn this around: help someone. Give your time, your talent, and your wisdom to make a difference in someone else’s life.

It really isn’t that hard to do and it could be the greatest gift you ever give—or receive.

But what can I do, you say? You’re retired, it’s been years since you’ve been in the workplace, and you really don’t think you have any skills anyone can use.

Say that to Tom Frazier, director of Blues City Thrift in Memphis, Tennessee, and he’ll tell you otherwise. Just a few years ago, Tom’s days were filled with hard drives, software upgrades, and his customers who were often in frantic need of his company’s computer maintenance genius. (I was one of them.)

Then after moving on from that business and taking a few months off, Tom found himself without a next step—and he didn’t like it.

“My mantra for years has been that retirement is not necessarily a good thing, but change is,” says Tom. “ I’ve always felt change is as good as a vacation. I realized that I had forgotten that—so I made some changes.” This included volunteering to pick up and drive Veterans needing to visit the local Veterans Hospital. He also volunteered with an urban farmers market in Binghampton, a Memphis neighborhood.

But then along came an opportunity that Tom didn’t expect, but which gave him an opportunity to use his managerial skills and his desire to be of service to others—creating a nice, neat, quality thrift store where the proceeds go to help other Memphis charities.

In other words, a business that makes money to give to charities…hence the store’s tagline, “Thrifty Goods for a Greater Good.”

Tom started working with Blues City Thrift before it even had a location…as a part-time employee driving a large truck to pick up donated items and deliver them to donated warehouse space. “That was a humbling experience for me,” he says. Fast-forward to today’s Blues City Thrift…almost 13,000 clean and well-arranged square feet holding a range of items for sale. The store employs a few individuals who have had trouble finding work elsewhere, and also has several volunteers.

“I really enjoy coming into contact with many people I might never have met, people who are definitely struggling or just want to make their dollars stretch more. Maybe they need a $10 suit for an interview. Or they’d like their house to look nicer but they can’t afford a big department store. Blues City Thrift is nice, neat, well-lit and organized…and you can still get a pair of $2.99 jeans.”

Tom isn’t new to helping others. His past includes serving as a missionary on a voyage bringing books to schools in over 40 underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia. He still finds being of service uplifting and energizing.

“At Blues City Thrift, we are sometimes offered items that we can’t accept, because our standards are too high. In those cases, we give dozens of bags of items to ministries all over town who serve the homeless. We recycle everything. The work is challenging and never boring…I enjoy it so much I hate to take a day off!”

For a person who is still employed full-time, donating several hours a week to a charity or organization may not be possible. But like Tom says, if someone is feeling left out, just sitting at home all day, watching television, surfing the web, trying to figure out what to do with empty hours…there are so many agencies and charities that need a person’s time and talent.

Everyone has a skill. That’s what we boomers are known for!

Maybe you know bookkeeping. How to arrange a shelf. You might excel at greeting people with a smile. Stacking a box or two. Pouring cups of coffee. Doing inventory. Helping someone get to the doctor. Several hours a week, a few hours on Saturday, whatever your schedule allows. As Tom says, it’s so important and humanizing to lend a hand to people who are having a hard time at the moment…and anybody can do it.

Don’t think you are too old, or too out of touch, or too set in your ways. I think nothing energizes us like getting out of ourselves and getting into helping another.

And research tells us helping others is good for us.

Studies have linked helping others to a decreased mortality risk, especially when there is a social connection involved. It begins a “cycle” of giving that continues in you. Generosity is a key factor in a happy marriage. Simply put, helping others feels good…and it’s good for your health.

“I kind of backed into this opportunity,” says Tom. “I had never even been in a thrift store, and now I love what I am doing. My wife, Sandra, is working here as well, so we’re together every day. In fact, we’re more in love than ever.” Tom, who is turning 64 this month, also recently produced a CD of songs he’s been writing since the 1970s. “Funny what you can still do!”

So give it a thought. Tis’ the season to give. Maybe there’s a part of you that would make a tremendous gift for someone else. Maybe in 2015 you decide you’re going to spend a few hours outside your comfort zone making a difference. Just imagine what you could receive!

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a second moment before starting to improve the world.”

Anne Frank

Preparing for Holiday Travel.

11/20/2014 / Laura

As the holiday week approaches and with it the reality that 44 million Americans will be traveling, I am doing my best to overcome the temptation to trade in my airline ticket for a frog and hop all the way across country. This is because of what happened to me several years ago in a major metropolitan airport. With sincere apologies to my hero Anne Lamott, I call this “Traveling Lord-Have-Mercies.”

They say it’s not the destination, it’s the journey…but after three days of being stranded in an airport, I have to disagree.

In this modern age of convenience, getting somewhere shouldn’t be so hard—after all, we’re not in covered wagons anymore wondering if we’ll make it over the pass before the first snowfall. Remember comedian Alan King’s hysterical routines about just trying to navigate the airport? I also have a vague childhood memory of my father relating a story about his father being stranded on a lonely dirt road in Utah and stopping to ask for directions. The local resident listened politely, scratched his head, and said, “You can’t get there from here.” I remember that when I heard it, I didn’t really find the anecdote all that amusing, though my father would laugh heartily upon each telling.

Funny how your perspective changes. The Donner party has nothing on me.

My story took place a few years ago, during a Titanic weekend at a major international airport, courtesy of an airline that for some reason, wasn’t particularly motivated to get me anywhere. Even now when pressed for details my heart rate increases ever so slightly. It’s akin to recounting a kidnapping or abduction. My only consolation is that I eventually escaped…as Dorothy exclaimed, tears running down her cheek, little Toto fleeing the Witch’s tower…”You got away! You got away!”

Never mind the sordid details: planes leaving earlier than they were supposed to, doors shut in my face, no one at the ticket counter to help me re-book, misinformation (okay, lies), rude agents, being handed a voucher for two overnight stays at a nasty airport hotel (“Yes, you have to pay for your room”), wearing the same underwear for three days, watching new customers board airplanes I was supposed to be on, agents unable to tell me why I was repeatedly bumped from the standby list, lying in a prenatal position, crying in the bathroom, airport food…no, what really stays with me about this whole incident is what it did to me mentally. Let me put it this way: I now understand Patricia Hearst.

I’ve heard of the Stockholm Syndrome, where captives are deprived of basic necessities, with no control over their surroundings, and eventually grow to blindly follow their captors. I never used to get that. But after being ignored and pushed aside for three days with no sense of escape, I began to feel my inner defenses break down. I lost my sense of who I was, or that I mattered every bit as much as anyone else in line. A blindfold and a closet couldn’t be far away.

All I wanted to do was to get on a connecting plane to a particular city.

And have a real meal. Change my clothes. Breathe outside air. Yet, it was clear as each hour, and finally, almost three full days went by, this wasn’t happening. And hey, it wasn’t my fault the plane on which I flew into this airport was late to begin with.

As I quickly passed through anger, disappointment, exhaustion, fear, new rage, resentment and amazement, I began to sink into a vat of resignation. As thick and insidious as any pit or quicksand, it was as though I was disappearing…from the airline’s wait list for each flight, from my fellow travelers who scurried to their planes, from anything familiar.

Like that crazy bug-eating guy in “Man vs. Wild,” I was willing to do whatever it took to survive.

I checked out every lounge. I walked regularly to keep my blood flowing. I looked out the windows and wondered what people who were not prisoners were doing. Finally, I bonded with a stranded couple sharing this life-in-hell experience with me. Together, we plotted our strategy: find one nice, compassionate person, grab his or her ankles, and refuse to let go until we were on board a flight to anywhere. Somehow, it worked. We found that one human being who actually took action to make sure we got on a plane. Never mind that it was going to the wrong city. At least it was going somewhere.

Giddy with anticipation, we literally ran down the jet way, stripped of dignity, restraint, and by this time, any trace of hygiene. Once in our seats, the overhead video screen turned on and began to play a commercial. In it, the smiling president of the airlines cheerfully began, “I hope you will think of us again when you have travel plans.”

You bet I will.

Being an optimist (or more honestly, a realistic optimist) I just know all will go well this time, mainly because I won’t be on that airline. And I actually do enjoy traveling. But I’ve had to be smarter about it for sure. So if you are preparing for an airline trek, be safe, be well and if your inbound flight is canceled, remember to make sure you still have reservations going outbound—or you could be taking a frog home.