Setting Our Priorities

     The theme for boomer blogging this week seems to center on how to spend your time in retirement, how to focus your energies, how to prioritize your activities. And in true form, I have saved the best for last.

     But first, Laura Lee Carter has been thinking about blogging. In How Do We Choose What to Write About? she wonders why we find some topics worth exploring while others never catch our interest. She concludes, somewhat mordantly I think, that a midlife crisis is the gift that keeps on giving.

     On the Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist, turns her attention to financial priorities. In her post Most Americans Have Financial Regrets she cites a survey showing that older people regret not starting to save soon enough for retirement, while Millennials have the most regrets about student loan debt.

     It raises the question: How much time and effort are we willing to devote to saving money, planning for the future, and organizing our financial lives? That's a question everyone has to answer for themselves, as well as a similar question: How much time do we spend to organize the rest of our lives?

     Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting reveals that she has attempted throughout her life to be neat and organized. She now reports that she has made some progress ... but only temporarily. It's a losing battle, she avers, and in Organized Life, Organized Body, Organized Mind? she finally admits that she is now willing to accept the consequences of a messy lifestyle.

     All I know is that there are two kinds of people in the world. The messy ones. And the people who are married to them.

     Anyway, speaking of time -- and time wasters -- according to Carol Cassara at Heart-Mind-Soul, everyone loves those quizzes that periodically make the rounds on Facebook. In her post My Baby Boomer Test she offers one of her own.

     Okay I admit it, I'm a sucker. I took the test and scored "Your memory is a bit lacking -- you might have smoked too much weed back then." I deny smoking too much weed back then -- I smoked a little, but not so much that it friend my brain. However, I also confess that age has done what weed did not, and I now admit to a memory that sometimes skips and falters.

     Still, as I said, I'm a sucker for quizzes. If you share my weakness you can try several of them over in the right-hand column of this blog, including my own Are You a Baby Boomer?

     But if you want to make more serious use of your time you might be inspired by Kathy Gottberg, who has gone on a real vacation which includes a mini-vacation from her blog. In her absence she has signed up guest Lizzie Lau to fill in for her. Gottberg introduces Lau as a part-time resident of La Quinta, CA, who knows how to live the “rightsized” life. This week’s post The Costa Rica Version of Rightsizing presents us with the concept of “pura vida” which is a vibe, an approach to life, a way to show gratitude.

     If you want more of Lizzie, you can find the self-described former adrenaline junkie and ex-skydiver blogging on the Lizzielau website.

     Finally, some of you might recall a post I did in March called You've Got a Friend, in which I featured the Happiness Project, a startup that aims to provide emotional support for everyday people, from everyday people, all by way of telephone. The project is now dedicating itself to recruiting "happiness givers" -- compassionate listeners who want to make other people happy, and earn a little income in the process.

     Anyone who thinks they fit that description can arrange an interview with the project. The top 100 candidates will comprise the project's foundational group of happiness givers. If you're interested, click over to Happy the App and sign up for an interview. Who knows ... you might just be happy you did.