I have been working diligently on the Rocking Retirement book these past few weeks, so I have not been doing much posting. I wanted to share this point I wrote about yesterday. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 7: Time Management and Daily Rhythm. I feel I would be remiss if I were to neglect the topic of “busyness.” In the United States, it seems that we have an epidemic of this phenomenon. Some people wear their busyness like a badge of honor. The only circumstance where this is appropriate is in your business, not in your life. Being busy means that you have too much to do in the time that you have allotted to do it. This is not something to be proud of. Busyness should not be a life goal. Peace should be your goal, and you can never get there when you are always busy. Avoid the busyness trap by learning to say “no”, or at least, “Let me think about that” when people ask you to come, join, pitch in, with whatever it is that they have going on. Leave time in your schedule for emergencies. Just like you have an emergency fund in your bank account, leave some time in your schedule for emergencies and other things that come up. Don’t let “busy” be how you describe yourself or your life! When someone asks how you are, wouldn’t you rather be able to respond with joyful, fulfilled, or at peace? We all need some time for reflection. Time to think about, “What went right today?” Time to think about all the things that bless us throughout the day. I take a few minutes before bed each night to journal things that blessed me during the day. I usually run out of space before I run out of words. Here are some notes I’ve recorded over the past few years. - A meeting was cancelled so I chilled at home and got some household tasks completed. - Salmon in creamy tomato sauce for dinner.  - Sold some things on Facebook marketplace today.  - Did my laundry. I love that I have a washer and dryer in my house.  - My cat sat in my lap for the first time. A schedule should serve your life. Your life should not serve your schedule.

I recently watched this video claiming 11 perks for seniors who are flying. Some of these are limited by airport and airline, and some are actually ADA requirements, but I did learn a few interesting things. The one that surprised me the most is that you can request a free companion ticket so someone can escort you to your gate instead of dropping you at the curb. Here is the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCPcUUnU_9s I am using compressor bags so I can fit everything in my carry on. And I am looking into bar shampoos and soaps for travel to avoid carrying liquids. I also bring an empty water bottle in my personal item that I fill at the water fountain as soon as I clear security. What are your favorite travel tips or hacks?

Hello all! I cancelled tomorrow's Let's Talk Retirement. I know a lot of people are on vacation. The next session with be Tuesday, September 8 at 7 PM ET. We are going to talk about a very exciting topic ... how can you use Artificial Intelligence to improve your life. We could spend a month on this topic and not cover everything, so I am very excited. Come next month ready to learn and to share. And, bring friends!

I just learned this from the Kim Kommando newsletter. I had no idea that you could preserve voicemail messages. Through a couple of taps, you can save messages directly to your Gmail account or download them to a device. There are many reasons you might want to do this. Kim mentioned hearing from people who saved the messages from someone to listen to after they passed away. It is a beautiful way to preserve their voice. I am remembering some special messages I've received from people over the years that I would have saved had I known how easy this is. I will do it in the future for sure. Try these instructions I posted below. If they don't work for you, you Google how to do it with your specific device and phone carrier. iPhone: Open Phone > Voicemail. Tap the message, then tap Share. Choose Save to Files, or More, then pick iCloud Drive or Google Drive. Android: Open the Phone app > Voicemail. Tap the message to expand it, tap Share and save it to Google Drive. You could also send it to yourself through email or one of the other options. Who's messages would you like to save?

Really. Who are you? We so often identify ourselves by what it is we do to earn a living. Or we might identify ourselves as a spouse or a parent. Some of us identify ourselves by our gender, orientation, or heritage, But, have you ever thought about who you really are? Do you know how other people describe you? Each one of us is a unique being designed and created for a purpose. Doing some personal discovery of our individual identity and purpose is essential to live a life with intention. A life without regrets. Please join us this coming Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. ET as we talk about discovering our identity, particularly our new identity during the retirement season of life. All are welcome, so feel free to invite some friends along. I'd love to hear from you before Tuesday: How would you answer the question, "Who are you?"—without mentioning your job or your family role?