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Retirement blesses us with time to do what we truly desire. We’re free to follow our hearts true desire and find joy while doing so. However, finding joy in retirement goes beyond finding a beach house to recline or having more free time than you know what to do with it. Here are 6 important tips for a joyful retirement.

Cut Spending By Budgeting

A lot has been said concerning money and happiness. While money doesn’t equate to happiness, its one vital component for a joyful retirement. A study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College on what makes retirees happy reaffirms the importance of money. 

Most people go on a spending spree the minute they get their retirement money and then end up without a penny few months later. You need to budget your money and spend wisely as there wouldn’t be any monthly pay checks anymore. 

Maintain a Daily Routine

Indeed one of retirement’s most enticing benefits is the freedom to do whatever you desire. However, it’s easy to fall into an unhealthy pattern which might be detrimental to your health. To prevent this, doctors recommend following a healthy daily routine. 

Incorporate all the activities you love into the routine as well as other healthy activities recommended by your doctor. Doing this would help you avoid the feeling of purposelessness most retirees admit to feeling few months into retirement.

Stay in Touch

A study by the University of Chicago showed that extreme loneliness increases a retiree’s chances of early death by as much as 14%. Being retired takes you out of the majority of your social networks and cuts down on the amount of human connection we make daily. 

Extra effort should be put into staying in touch with a thriving social community as the effects of extreme loneliness can be deadly. This can be your family, former colleagues, Faith groups, group affiliations, or by community volunteering.

Stay Active

Very different from staying in touch, staying active entails playing a role. It can be in the family, your house of faith or the community. Staying active offers a twofold benefit as it helps you socialize and gives you a sense of purpose. Doctors say both are vital to the happiness and well-being of a retiree.

Stay Fit By Exercising 

While exercise is important at all periods in our lives, it’s even more necessary when you’re retired. Exercising the body is important to both your physical and mental well-being. Research has shown that frequent exercise helps wards off several health issues and boosts your energy levels. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) recommends four types of exercise for retirees.

Train Your Brain

Most people go into retirement thankful for the endless hours of free time they’ll have and anticipating just how they’ll spend those hours. Most might decide to pursue an abandoned hobby, read books, or learn new things. 

These lofty aspirations most times get abandoned a few months into retirement. However, researchers at the Harvard Medical School have proven several times that tasking your brain has unending benefits. It keeps your memory strong and keeps your brain functioning at high levels.

This can be reading a book, painting, doing puzzles, or learning a new skill. Asides the apparent benefit of tasking your brain, the joy and sense of progress when you chase these pursuits has its own benefits. 

You could join a community or group that shares similar passions and enjoy create new social connections. A group has the added advantage of pushing you past your comfort zone which is great for stimulating the brain.

It’s possible to have a joyful retirement. All it requires is some effort to continually do the right thing. When you make these correct lifestyle choices, you’ll be set to enjoy a joyful retirement filled with happiness and purpose.

How much time have you dedicated to your personal development in the past year? Six months? Week?

Unfortunately, society trains us to put other things first, like education and careers. We’re not downplaying their value in life. We just want to point out the importance of taking the time to invest in our self-improvement.

Today, we’re talking about all the reasons why personal growth matters. As you’ll find out below, it makes up a huge chunk of your life as a whole, no matter how old you are.

So, let’s get started.

What Is Personal Growth?

Working on accomplishing things in life, setting goals, and achieving them—that’s personal growth. It starts with the drive to do and be better.

Even before that, you have to start with a positive mindset. That helps boost your resilience and keeps you going, even when things don’t go your way.

The beauty of personal growth is that it’s subjective. It’s different for everyone, like success.

Some people define being successful as having a happy, healthy family. Others define it as having a career, maybe having more money than they know what to do with.

Even though personal growth is a bit more elusive, it’s all improving as an individual. This can be polishing up your education or refining your temperament. Whatever it is you’re seeking out in life, that’s your personal growth journey.

Because it’s so diverse and covers so many aspects, it goes by several names, including:

• Self-improvement
• Personal development
• Self-growth
• Self-help

Why Does Personal Growth Matter?

Now that we understand what personal growth is, you can see how it can have a positive effect on someone. Then, without even trying, that person will motivate others to work harder and do better.

So, personal growth isn’t a solitary journey. Yes, you do the hard work. Yet, you reap so many rewards that you quickly realize it was all worth it.

Working on developing you as a person will help you in various aspects of your life. You’ll shine at work and you’ll notice people will start to praise your accomplishments.

You’ll also grow into a more compassionate and loving person. Listening and being attentive will come naturally. You’ll feel good about yourself, and you’ll make others feel good as well.

How to Start Your Personal Growth Journey

Empathy and positive thinking are two traits we seem to lose over the years. Personal growth can help you regain them back.

Here are some of the things you can do to begin achieving personal growth.

Set Short-Term Goals

One of the first steps towards personal growth is setting and achieving short-term goals. When creating goals, keep the following in mind:

• Make your goals realistic
• Divide long-term goals into several short-term ones
• Write each goal on a Post-It and hang it on your desk or bathroom mirror
• Recognize and accept your strengths and weaknesses
• Treat yourself to something nice every time you complete one of your goals

Keep Learning

We’re never too old to learn. Keep an open mind and take a step out of your comfort zone, and you’ll find fascinating things to learn about.

Ask any entrepreneur, and they’ll tell you they never stop learning. Their fascination with the world is what keeps them a step ahead of everyone else.

The trick is to find something that piques your interest. In this day and age where everything is evolving so quickly, there’s no shortage of that!

Find Your Purpose

What makes you happy? Find what makes you giddy with happiness, aka your purpose in life.

Each one of us has something that drives them and sets them apart from everyone else. Just find what you want and go after it.

Even if you don’t know much about it, you can always learn. Thanks to modern-day technology, there are plenty of options to choose from.

Wake Up Early

Having healthy sleep patterns will regulate your physical, emotional, and mental states. You’ll feel more energized and ready to tackle the day that lies ahead.

Studies show that people who make a habit of waking up early are healthier, happier, and more productive. It may take some time to get used to, but, once you do, you’ll never go back!

Read More

Many of us have given up on reading, thanks to our ever-present smartphones. You have to start the habit of reading each day, even if you read one blog a day.

Acquiring knowledge is extremely satisfying. You feel competent and just plain good. In a nutshell, reading is one of the easiest and most satisfying ways to boost your self-confidence and enhance your personal growth.

Practice Self-Acceptance

Knowing what your talents and skills are, is a vital part of self-acceptance. It’s also just as important to recognize the areas where you’re not as strong.

Be confident in what you’ve accomplished and forgive yourself for any past mistakes. That’s the first step to accepting who you are and fully realizing your true worth.

We’re all here for a reason. Take the time to find out what yours is.

A Final Note

Understanding why personal growth matters is like understanding the secret of the universe. It can mean the difference between being happy, hopeful, and feeling dejected and lost.

Well, of course no one wakes up saying, “I want to be miserable.” It requires hard work and dedication.

You have to have a positive outlook and accept yourself for who you truly are. Only then can you unlock your true potential, which I have no doubt, will be amazing!

Do you cringe at the injustices practiced against women every day? Are you feeling drained and exhausted? Or maybe instead of taking care of yourself, you are always you taking care of everyone else ?

Well you’re in the right place if you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions. Maybe you feel unable to speak up or unheard even when you do. We’ve all felt that sense of isolation and weakness at one time or another.

The good news is there’s a silver lining to all this. Even if you feel you’ve lost your voice and power, you can never really lose them. You just have to work at bringing them to the forefront.

Alice Walker once said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” I’m here today to remind you of how strong and amazing you are.

In this post, I’ll show five things you can do to embrace your inner strength and let it shine through.

So, start reading to learn how to claim your power today!

Practice Daily Self-Care

The fastest way to reclaim your power is to care for yourself. This means eating right and exercising. It also means taking time to do something you enjoy, like drawing, journaling, or dancing. It could even be as simple as sitting there and focusing on your breathing.

The point is to shift your ideas from being the caregiver 24/7. Show yourself some of that care and compassion.

Changing just this mindset can help you claim your power. It’s one of the best and most fulfilling ways to lead you to your true purpose in life.

Stay Spiritually Connected

Staying connected spiritually is something many of us overlook in our busy lives. Yet, keeping yourself grounded boosts your powers of optimism and self-assurance.

You know that feeling when you sense things aren’t as they should? That you’re out of place somehow?

Experts call this being misaligned with the universe. This is when you feel vulnerable, unregulated, and seem to pick up negative vibes from everyone around you.

Stay committed to your power and maintain a regulated, spiritual connection. There are several ways to do this and some you can even do at your desk at work for a quick rejuvenation.

Here are some things you can do to stay spiritually connected and be able to claim your power:

• Do yoga
• Try mindful meditation
• Do volunteer work
• Be grateful
• Live your truth

Step Out of the Box

Many of us, myself included, abhor change. It’s a nuisance if I’m being honest with you. Why fix something that’s not broken?

However, many times, certain parts of our lives are broken. We’re just too afraid to deal with it. It’s scary, uncomfortable, and overwhelming at times.

Take quitting your job or ending a relationship, for example. You’re unhappy and you feel stuck. Still, you dread rocking the boat because you tell yourself, “I’ll be all alone.”

But listen to me very carefully: you’re stronger than you think. And I have no doubt you will be able to take care of yourself, you will be just fine.

In situations like this, change may actually be good for you. It may take some time to adjust. Give it a week at the most, and you’ll notice that you’ve learned how to do it differently. Only then can you move forward in life and learn to claim your power!

Be Authentic

Yes, women are nurturers. We tend to naturally look out for others and take care of them before we take care of ourselves. But don’t allow that to define you…. to define who you are as a woman.

Being authentic to your true self means honing in on what your likes and dislikes. It also means you acknowledge that you’re an intelligent, capable woman.

Author of the highly acclaimed book, Claim Your Power, Mastin Kipp, says, “You have all you need within you to become the best version of yourself.”

So, you should never allow external influences to tell you who you are or how you feel. That’s for you to decide.

We all have that one person. You know who I’m talking about. That person who thinks they know you better than you know yourself.

So, they always try to ‘advise’ you and help you out, even when you don’t ask for you. The subliminal message is you’re weak and I’m strong.

When this happens, you have to put a stop to it immediately. Take a step back from that person.

Protecting your energy from outside influences and disruptions is called self-preservation. By doing that, you’re in a better position to claim your power.

Find Your Purpose

Knowing what you want to do in life is great. But it’s usually tied to material goals and aspirations. These goals are typically short-lived. Plus, they’re always changing and evolving.

Your true purpose shouldn’t be external. It should be internal.

Internal goals are when we try to recognize how we want to feel. Once you’re aware of that, you can determine the emotion you’re seeking. That’s the first step.

The second step is to learn how to generate that emotion. When you learn how to harness it, you become better aligned with the universe. On the upside, your self-confidence soars. You also gain clarity somehow like someone took the blinders off. Everything will be come easier to understand and much clearer for you.

Finally, the third step is to find ways to share that emotion with others via a variety of services. It could be through your job or by doing any kind of volunteer work. Not only that, but you can channel it through your relationships at work and at home.

That’s your true life purpose. That’s how you can claim your power!

A Final Note

Remember, no one can claim your power for you. This is something you have to do on your own. Even the most successful CEOs and business moguls have to work at claiming their inner power. It’s something that needs constant attention. Yet, with time, your confidence will soar, your decision-making abilities will become sharper. You’ll also learn to stand up for yourself when you’re right and be strong enough to admit when you’re wrong.

To generate true power from within, start by recognizing that you’re a smart and confident woman. You are unique and you have so much value you can add to this world that only you can do.

Acknowledge the courage and determination you have inside of you. As you start to believe in yourself more and more, you will notice others will also.