Shownotes
George Jerjian is here to challenge our views on retirement. A true maverick, his life has taken a fascinating, uncharted course now that he’s in his sixties. The former financial adviser is on a mission to impact millions as a mindset mentor, helping baby boomers: the generation that coaching often overlooks.
In this podcast we discussed how most of us are living unconsciously, we are following "the herd" into retirement. If we gave it any thought, it was probably about our financial ability to retire. George opens our eyes to the idea of passion and purpose in our retirement years, of being engaged with our lives, our community, our relationships. He shares ideas from his book, "Spirit of Gratitude: Crises are Opportunities" and explains from personal experience and scientific data, how gratitude and thankfulness effect us physiologically as well as allowing us to be open to think about opportunities.
His personal story unfolds as he shares how a series of life-altering events shaped his understanding of what retirement can—and should—mean. He emphasizes that this stage of life is not the end but rather a new beginning filled with potential for growth and exploration.
Throughout their chat, Wendy and George reflect on the societal pressures surrounding retirement and how they often lead to a herd mentality that can stifle individual passions. They discuss the common feelings of loss and uncertainty that come with leaving a career and what steps can be taken to re-engage in life. George passionately advocates for living with intention, urging listeners to embrace their unique journeys and actively seek activities that ignite their passions.
With humor and heartfelt advice, they remind us that retirement is a time to break free from old patterns and create a life that truly resonates with who we are. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to make their retirement years the best yet!
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
Foreign.
Speaker B:Boomer listeners, this is episode number 15 and I am Wendy Green.
Speaker B:And that 15 means that we have been doing this now for four months.
Speaker A:Woohoo.
Speaker B:Way to go.
Speaker B:Hey Boomers.
Speaker B:Today we're going to be talking to George Jurgen and George is the Retirement Rebel.
Speaker B:One of my favorite quotes comes from Irma Bombeck.
Speaker B:She said, when I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I do not have a single bit of talent left.
Speaker B:And I could say I, I used everything you gave me.
Speaker B:I believe George Jurgen feels the same way about retirement.
Speaker B:He says, live a life of purpose and passion and go out with a bang, not a whimper.
Speaker B:So you're going to meet George in a few minutes and hear all about why he is the retirement Rebel.
Speaker B:But first I just want to say I am so grateful for all of you.
Speaker B:I love the hey Boomer community.
Speaker B:I love that we are all involved in the conversation and in sharing the ideas that we have here.
Speaker B:If you also like what you're hearing, I want to share some of this information with your friends.
Speaker B:Please feel very compelled to press like or or heart, tag people that you know in the comments and share the broadcast with them if they're not able to join with us today.
Speaker B:That's being a good friend.
Speaker B:I also want to encourage you because as a member of this community, that means that you are an interested, relevant, engaged individual who really wants to learn and participate and grow and in these years of your life.
Speaker B:And so being part of the community means that you are also engaged in the conversation.
Speaker B:I am very excited about talking to George and I have all kinds of questions for him.
Speaker B:But I would imagine that you all also have lots of questions that would make this conversation even more exciting, more relevant and more meaningful to you.
Speaker B:So please feel free to go ahead, add your comments and and I will be watching the chat box and we'll be happy to share some of your thoughts and your questions with George as we go on.
Speaker B:So let me bring George on and introduce him to you.
Speaker B:Hi George.
Speaker A:Hi Wendy.
Speaker A:Hi.
Speaker A:Hey Boomer community,.
Speaker B:It's good to see you.
Speaker B:I'm going to share your website with folks just in case they're interested.
Speaker B:I'm sure they will be, but let me go through a brief introduction.
Speaker B:So George has a business degree and a journalism degree.
Speaker B:He has an extensive business career.
Speaker B:He is the author of 10 books.
Speaker B:He is an Emmy Award winning producer, an international speaker and a business consultant.
Speaker B:He his most recent book, Spirit of Gratitude, Crises are Opportunities, has gained him international recognition.
Speaker B:Way to go George, his life has been a testament in reinventing himself time and again.
Speaker B:George knows how to help retiring baby boomers who are committed to making a change.
Speaker B:And he has created an online program, Dare to discover your purpose as a stepping stone for his tribe so they can become who they were meant to be.
Speaker B:I know this is going to be a fascinating conversation, and I am looking forward to your participation and comments.
Speaker B:And, George, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker A:My pleasure, Wendy.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:And what an amazing introduction.
Speaker A:I mean, did you write this yourself?
Speaker B:Well, you know, you impressed me when we first talked, so I just had to say all these glowing things about you.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Very kind.
Speaker A:Appreciate it.
Speaker B:Of course, of course.
Speaker B:So speaking about when we first talked, you were, you know, as we were getting to know each other, you were telling me some stories about your early years, which are very unlike the early years most of us, at least in the US Might have experienced.
Speaker B:So just to kind of familiarize yourself with the audience, would you mind sharing a little bit about how you started where you came from?
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:I think just to qualify what you said, probably most Americans would not have had this kind of upbringing, but a certain number would, particularly in the diplomatic corps and people whose parents work overseas and travel extensively.
Speaker A:And I suspect they probably had an even more.
Speaker A:A richer life in terms of moving every two years.
Speaker A:But I was born in Africa, in Sudan.
Speaker A:My parents were Armenian.
Speaker A:They sent me to boarding school in England at the age of 10.
Speaker A:So I, you know, if you like, my first crisis was that if you like moving from home, from a sunny place to a place that's not so sunny, and a different culture, a different mentality, different food, so, you know, all that at a very young age.
Speaker A:That, I think, was my first crisis, if you like.
Speaker A:But the reason my parents sent me to boarding school in England was because education was poor in Sudan, and they didn't want me to fall behind.
Speaker A:And so they wanted to give me the best opportunity.
Speaker A:And that came price at a sacrifice.
Speaker A:So that's sort of.
Speaker A:That's sort of my early years.
Speaker A:And boarding school was an experience in itself.
Speaker A:I think I mentioned to you I studied history, and I fell in love with US History at the time, not forgetting that I liked American music, the Doors and so on, and Bread and Crikey, Simon Garfunkel and.
Speaker A:And also I liked hamburgers and hot dogs and, you know, all that sort of.
Speaker A:The American culture was a very attractive culture, as were Hollywood films.
Speaker A:But I think at a sort of a deeper level, when I studied history, I studied American History, the Bill of Rights, the US Constitution, all that stuff.
Speaker A:And that just, I completely fell for it hook, line and sinker, fell in love with it.
Speaker A:And I said, you know, that's where I ultimately want to go.
Speaker A:And I ended up living in the US In New Jersey for eight years.
Speaker A:And my wife and I.
Speaker A:My wife had, we had two kids in the States, so they're dual Nationals.
Speaker A:And so I've got a.
Speaker A:A deep vested interest in the United States.
Speaker A:And so, yeah, that's a little bit about me.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:Well, thank you.
Speaker B:And I just, for the audience's edification, I just want to say that you are now coming to us live from the uk, which is such an honor to have you joining me today.
Speaker B:But you did spend time in the U.S. and you did fall in love with the U.S. as you said, and you had a global career, partly working in the US and partnering with companies here and then also around the world.
Speaker B:But I'm wondering, what was the turning point for you that shifted your business focus, your journalism focus, to being this retirement rebel?
Speaker A:That's a great question.
Speaker A:Has a long answer.
Speaker A:Wendy, I hope you're.
Speaker A:You're ready for this.
Speaker A: hink the turning point was in: Speaker A:My life was hit by a perfect storm of three unrelated events.
Speaker A:The first one was we were moving homes, and that's pretty stressful on its own when you're trying to work and do that.
Speaker A:And then we got a call that my wife's father had a stroke, and so we had to go there.
Speaker A:And a week later, he died.
Speaker A:And that opened up a whole can of worms with his estate issues and so on.
Speaker A:And the third one was all this.
Speaker A: in the Same month in January: Speaker A:I had a doctor's appointment, had to go for an mri, and they discovered that I had a bone tumor.
Speaker A:And the oncologist said to me that bone tumors are in 98% of cases.
Speaker A:You know, you have six months to live, basically, in 98% of cases, because it's secondary cancer.
Speaker A:So for three weeks while they're undergoing tests, you know, I mean, they did all sorts of stuff on me.
Speaker A:They discovered that my tumor was benign, even though it was aggressive.
Speaker A:So I belonged to the 2% club.
Speaker A:So I was, you know, I was punching the air.
Speaker A:I was so happy.
Speaker A:It was like my death sentence had been commuted to six months in jail, the equivalent of.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And so the reason I said six months is because I had to have two Operations to remove the tumor, which was the size of an eggplant sitting on my pelvis.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And then I had six months to convalesce, you know, on crutches and learning how to walk again.
Speaker A:So with an experience like that, that really does stop you in your tracks and you start to question everything you've been doing to date.
Speaker A:And you realize that a lot of things that you thought were important, really not important.
Speaker A:So a kind of near death experience wakes you up to recognize the value of time.
Speaker A:You know, we've all been programmed to think about money, to think about savings, to think about, you know, the financial aspect of everything.
Speaker A:And we're kind of so programmed that we've stopped thinking.
Speaker A:And so when you recognize that time is a commodity like money, but it's probably even more important as we get older because it's finite and irreplaceable.
Speaker B:So what do you mean?
Speaker B:I'm sorry?
Speaker B:What do you mean we stop thinking?
Speaker B:I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that.
Speaker A:When.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Because our minds, we have two.
Speaker A:We have two minds, as it were.
Speaker A:We have the conscious mind, the.
Speaker A:The, if you like, the thinking mind, and we have the subconscious, which is the emotional mind.
Speaker A:And the emotional mind contains all the programs that we've been programmed with from childhood.
Speaker A:From the time when we had little control up to the age of seven.
Speaker A:Our subconscious mind was filled in with stuff that we didn't have a choice in.
Speaker A:It was programmed in us by our parents and schools.
Speaker A:And, you know, as life goes on, we have a lot of programs are actually very good for us, like walking, talking programs that we've been fed and we use it well.
Speaker A:But we also have programs in the back of our minds, in our subconscious, which were originally installed, if you like, like literally like computers, which were for our benefit at that time.
Speaker A:But today, with the passing of time and circumstances and the landscape, the world we live in is so different.
Speaker A:Some of these programs are actually now sabotaging us.
Speaker A:And in a sense.
Speaker B:Okay, go on.
Speaker A:Is a kind of program.
Speaker A:Retirement is a kind of program that we've been programmed with and we think that's kind of a natural course of event, but it's not.
Speaker A:It's only 150 years old.
Speaker B:So what you're saying then is when you say we stop thinking, what you're saying is we are just assuming that we're on this progression and the next progressive step is retirement, but there's no thought that goes into it.
Speaker B:It's just what we're supposed to do.
Speaker B:Next.
Speaker B:We don't really know what we're supposed to do, but it's just there.
Speaker B:Is that what you meant?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:We have a herd mentality when it comes to retirement, as I did myself.
Speaker A: So in: Speaker A:When I experienced, you know, this perfect storm in my life, I said, whoa, stop.
Speaker A:Time is important.
Speaker A:I'm going to make the most of it.
Speaker A:And at the age of 52, I was looking into retirement, and I did retire for 10 years, semi retired for 10 years.
Speaker A:And it's that process of semi retirement that I realized after the honeymoon period of retirement, which is great fun.
Speaker A:It's like taking a gap year, but late.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Which is great fun, and I totally encourage people to do that.
Speaker A:But pack in your bucket list into that one year and do everything you wanted to do, because you don't have all the time you think you have.
Speaker A:And in a way, you need to spend time the rest of your life to having a life of purpose and making that something that you love to do.
Speaker A:So it's not work anymore.
Speaker B:Okay, so as the retirement rebel, what you're telling me is that there's fun and there's purpose.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:But they can be combined.
Speaker B:Is that okay?
Speaker B:And so you've done a lot of research in.
Speaker B:I was just going to say you've done a lot of research into retirement and how it affects people.
Speaker B:And some people do move into it gracefully, but some people have a really difficult time with how to spend their time.
Speaker B:As you said, And Melissa commented, time is a commodity.
Speaker B:So what makes this not knowing what to do with their time so difficult for people?
Speaker A:I think, I mean, this is just my opinion.
Speaker A:I think that it's to do with our mindset and how we've been programmed.
Speaker A:Everybody has a different experience.
Speaker A:I hate to sort of conflate the two together, but it's a little bit like COVID 19.
Speaker A:It has a different impact on different people.
Speaker A:And it's all based on personal experiences, it's based on history, it's based on expectations.
Speaker A:So if, I mean, I hear a lot of people thinking that retirement is nirvana.
Speaker A:And the reason they have this expectation that retirement is just going to be this wonderful place they go to is because they've been working in a job that they hate.
Speaker A:So they've been in that state of mind and they go to retirement, nothing's really going to change.
Speaker A:In fact, it's going to get worse because their mindset is in the wrong place.
Speaker A:Whereas if it's somebody who loved what they did and retires from that job, but continues doing what they love to do.
Speaker A:I call those people unconscious competence.
Speaker A:They know they're doing the right thing, but they don't really know why.
Speaker A:They just love what they do and they do it.
Speaker A:I'm trying to help people who are in trouble in terms of when facing retirement, which is a crisis, it's a real crisis, because it's a turning point in their lives.
Speaker A:Somebody like Dr. Carl Jung, the father of psychology, said that what was true in the morning of life becomes a lie in the evening.
Speaker A:What was true in the morning of life becomes a lie in the evening.
Speaker A:And what he meant by that was in the morning of life, we've, you know, and we've all done it.
Speaker A:You know, we seek achievement, ambition, accolades.
Speaker A:We're looking for, you know, this is what makes us.
Speaker A:That's what gives us a reason to live.
Speaker A:That's how we've been programmed, and we get on with it.
Speaker A:But when one retires, the effort needed to do that and to get the accolades and the ambition, it's just a lot of effort for too little reward.
Speaker A:So you kind of have to pivot the whole thing 180 degrees morning to evening.
Speaker A:And in the evening of life, we should be going for something which is close to our hearts.
Speaker A:In fact, retirement, if you like, is life knocking on your door and saying, wake up.
Speaker A:Your last chance to do stuff.
Speaker A:You wanted to do the stuff you love to do that you've been afraid to even speak about it because you've pushed it so far down.
Speaker A:Because we're all trying to put bread on the table.
Speaker A:We're all trying to do stuff, and we don't recognize that there is a need within us to be much more.
Speaker A:So in a sense, it's the hero's journey.
Speaker A:You know, you kind of got to start doing the hero's journey.
Speaker A:And I'm just trying to think of the name of the guy who.
Speaker A:Joseph Campbell.
Speaker A:That's the man's hero's journey.
Speaker A:The hero's journey doesn't start for us at the age of 18.
Speaker A:The Hero's Journey is the constant of travel, as it were.
Speaker A:And it's over and over again.
Speaker A:So when we reach retirement, we have the opportunity to start this new journey that's going to take us to a place where we, you know, of our dreams, as it were, in the true sense of that.
Speaker A:Not just, you know, by the beach with a, you know, a glass of martini.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So to move from that life where we are struggling for achievement and accolades and the growth of our careers and whatever.
Speaker B:And you talked about the mindset.
Speaker B:So if we've been in this mindset of I really am counting the days, I'm not happy in this work.
Speaker B:What is the process that you take people through to shift that mindset if they've never actually been in that place of I love, love what I'm doing, I'm excited about where I'm going.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:This is exactly the hero's journey that I'm talking about.
Speaker A:So the process I came about with is, if you like, the last 13 years of my experience, since my, my perfect storm to where I am today, it's putting it all together in this hero's journey.
Speaker A:So it's a, it's an, it's a, it's a eight week module that I've worked on and it's like a blueprint for your new life.
Speaker B:For your new life.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And what I do is help you to express that, to bring it out from you, from yourself and deep within you.
Speaker A:So, for example, I would start with asking you to think about all the crises and opportunities you've had in your own life.
Speaker A:Because we've all had them.
Speaker A:We've all been through.
Speaker A:You know, life is a journey.
Speaker A:It's not a competition.
Speaker A:We're all on a journey and we're having experiences and good and bad, and we all have that.
Speaker A:And so it's about owning the good and the bad, and out of the bad comes the good.
Speaker A:It's not all bad.
Speaker A:So this is why I called my book Spirit of Gratitude.
Speaker A:Crises or Opportunities.
Speaker A:Because too often we're not even grateful for the good things we have, let alone for the bad things that happen in our life.
Speaker A:But we should actually be grateful for the bad things that happen in our lives.
Speaker A:Because in more cases than not, it sheds a light into our life.
Speaker A:You know, I think it was Leonard Cohen that had a song about letting the light break in or something.
Speaker A:I can't remember.
Speaker A:He had a beautiful song that expressed that.
Speaker A:And I think of these things that you get at fun fairs, sort of stick that if you break it, it goes, neon light, the light comes in, right?
Speaker A:And that's what happens to us in a crisis.
Speaker A:The light comes in.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:We break and the light comes in and it's painful.
Speaker A:So at the time of the pain, we don't see any good in it.
Speaker A:It's over time when we look back that we realize that every crisis that we've ever been in actually opens opportunities.
Speaker B:So, George, give me an example.
Speaker B:Right, so Most people, if they're in a crisis, they are not thinking about the opportunity.
Speaker B:In fact, at that point they're probably not thinking at all.
Speaker B:So give me an example of how you would move from that time of intense pain, intense crisis.
Speaker B:I'm just barely waking up in the morning to being able to see some of the opportunities that might be available to them.
Speaker A:Okay, for example, my perfect storm.
Speaker A:Three unrelated events coming together.
Speaker A:A near death experience.
Speaker A:But it's a wake up call.
Speaker A:It's a wake up call.
Speaker A:And whilst I was going through that darkness, I couldn't see the light.
Speaker A:But a year down the road, looking back, I would never change it.
Speaker A:It was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Speaker A:And it forced me to think about all the experiences I had.
Speaker A:And some of them not particularly pleasant, some of them, you know, where people just drove me to rage, you know, with treachery even.
Speaker A:Treachery, you know, whether it's marital infidelity or whether it's a business, a business experience where you are cheated, even those are blessings in disguise because there's such a huge learning opportunity there.
Speaker A:You don't think that way when it's happening to you.
Speaker A:Of course you don't.
Speaker A:You know, you'd be mad to, but you really, if you realize that every bad thing that happens to you, look for the silver lining.
Speaker A:It may not be obvious at that point in time, but you just got to look for it.
Speaker A:You just got to look for it.
Speaker A:It's there.
Speaker A:And retirement is a crisis.
Speaker A:And that's why I come back to this, is that people don't recognize it's a crisis because for the last 20 years, most people haven't retired completely.
Speaker A:They kind of semi retired.
Speaker A:They still keep working and invariably to supplement income.
Speaker A:But they're working at jobs they hate.
Speaker A:So they're not happy people.
Speaker A:And what I'm saying is take a step back.
Speaker A:You're not just an economic unit.
Speaker A:Take a step back and look at your life.
Speaker A:This is what I find interesting is that I've reached out to maybe, I think about 5,000 people on my advertising thing.
Speaker A:5,000 People have responded and to connect with me.
Speaker A:And I've done my stats.
Speaker A:77% Are women.
Speaker A:And I'm thinking, why aren't men getting on board here?
Speaker B:That's a good question.
Speaker A:Isn't that amazing?
Speaker A:77.
Speaker A:Three out of four are women.
Speaker A:They are ready and open to new ideas.
Speaker A:Men are not so open, strangely.
Speaker B:No, I think that's true.
Speaker B:Kathy had a comment that I think is interesting and I want to tie this back, she says, too bad we cannot start on a life of purpose much early in our lives.
Speaker B:And my thought about that is, as you take some time to contemplate, and I want to see what your thoughts are, George, but as you take some time to contemplate at this stage of our lives where we're semi retired or retired or whatever you want to call it, you start to think back about some of the things that you were good at and that you did feel purposeful at, and those are the things that you start to try and nurture.
Speaker B:So I'm wondering, at least for me that's been true, what your thoughts are about that.
Speaker A:If I've understood your question correctly, in my case, I wish I had started in my 20s.
Speaker A:I was going to, I wanted to, but even then I had a crisis because I had obligations.
Speaker A:My father had a business, a successful business.
Speaker A:He wanted me to be in that business.
Speaker A:I did not.
Speaker A:And my mother persuaded me to stay two years, to give it a chance, give it two years.
Speaker A:So I did, reluctantly.
Speaker A:And it took me off on a different road than what I had originally anticipated because I was trying to please my parents.
Speaker A:I should not have, but that's not the way we were trained.
Speaker A:Now, that said, I don't think I, I, I've spent a great deal of time thinking about this.
Speaker A:I do not blame anyone, neither my parents nor myself.
Speaker A:That was my journey.
Speaker A:I accept that was my journey.
Speaker A:But I do have an obligation, when my mind has been opened, that from here, from this point, when my mind is open, that I will make a decision to change it to the way I want it to be.
Speaker A:So don't look back on with regret.
Speaker A:Don't look for blame.
Speaker A:Look for how you can transform your life in a positive way and be grateful for the journey you've had to this point.
Speaker B:It does, I mean, I think I can relate that, you know, a lot of the choices I made were, you know, things that I thought my family would be proud of or that would help me take care of my children.
Speaker B:But I also think that, you know, if we, we're not starting from an absolutely clean slate at this point in our lives.
Speaker B:There are pieces like that crisis opened your mind, but you were also already a thoughtful person.
Speaker B:You were a journalist, you liked finding out more, you loved the history, so you had that open mind.
Speaker B:Part of you, you just hadn't spent a lot of time with it yet.
Speaker A:Yes, correct.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think that's part of it.
Speaker A:I would add just something else here, Wendy.
Speaker A:I think it's really important that we don't dwell on the, on blame and on, you know, whether it's blaming other people or yourself even.
Speaker A:Do not do that because that is negative thinking.
Speaker A:And if you introduce negative thinking, there is no space in your head for positivity.
Speaker A:And as Dr. Joe Dispenza says, you know, each thought releases by neurochemical signals to our body, so you release a negative one.
Speaker A:That's toxins.
Speaker A:Give it enough time, you poison yourself.
Speaker B:I just wanted to share this comment with you.
Speaker B:I think this is a beautiful comment from June.
Speaker B:She says gratitude and purpose and finding ways to pass ideas and kindness on makes life worth living for her.
Speaker A:Well, I would say this to June, actually the last two, well, almost the last two modules of my program is purpose and gratitude separately because they are connected.
Speaker A:In fact, here's something else that people talk about gratitude in a sort of woohoo sense, you know, oh yeah, everybody likes gratitude.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:But actually gratitude is much deeper, much deeper than that.
Speaker A:It's scientifically proven.
Speaker A:Dr. Robert Emmons of University of California at Berkeley talks and he's written books on this.
Speaker A:He's, he's a psychology professor there and he talks about when he's got a book out called Gratitude Works and he talks about the scientific rationale of why gratitude has a lot of positive aspects in terms of what it does to your mind and your body.
Speaker A:And I did a little bit more research into this and I looked at a German philosopher called Martin Heidegger who talked about the origin of the word thankful.
Speaker A:Thank.
Speaker A:Thinking and thanking.
Speaker A:The origin of the word for both these goes back to the root of one word, thanken in German, Old English, proto German.
Speaker A:And the word thanken meant that if you weren't in a grateful state of mind, you weren't thinking properly, because thinking and thanking are integrated.
Speaker A:And here's the reason why, you know, we have this thing that when I get my beach house, I'm going to be happy, or when I get that car, I'm going to be happy, or If I make 200 grand this year, I'm going to be happy.
Speaker A:The implication is we're unhappy until we get that.
Speaker A:So if you're in a state of unhappiness in the present time, you're almost guaranteed when you do achieve any of those things that you set yourself out to do, that you are going to be unhappy again because you're going to throw in a new ambition or a new challenge because you're in a state of unhappiness.
Speaker A:And so if you're already grateful for what you, what you have in your life, and I'm talking about relationships, I'm talking about family, I'm talking about, you know, even the basic human needs that we have, shelter, food, friendships, and all our networking material around us.
Speaker A:If one is grateful for all that, you're in a state of gratefulness.
Speaker A:That makes you already a very pleasant person to other people.
Speaker A:Whereas if you're not a grateful person, nothing out there is going to satisfy you.
Speaker A:Even your relationships will go weird because nobody wants to be around an unhappy person.
Speaker A:Nobody wants to be around a grumpy person.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So thinking and thankfulness, though, let me bring you back to that.
Speaker B:How do those work together?
Speaker A:They work together not just linguistically, but neurologically.
Speaker A:Very good question.
Speaker A:Neurologically, if you're in a state, in urine, state of gratitude, it opens up, it opens you up for more new opportunities.
Speaker A:At a very basic level, you go into a store and somebody's there to help you.
Speaker A:If they've got a smile and they're very pleasant and they, they want to serve you, they're not trying to push anything on you.
Speaker A:They're serving you and they're pleasant, you will gravitate to that person.
Speaker A:If you've got a salesman or whoever in that store, that's not pleasant, they're grumpy, they're doing you a favor.
Speaker A:It will naturally be a repellent.
Speaker A:So this is why I'm convinced that thinking and thanking are integrated in terms not just linguistically, as Martin Heidegger pointed out, but also neurologically.
Speaker A:And so Dr. Emmons talks about that.
Speaker A:So if you're in a grateful state of mind, number one, you're going to derive more pleasure and benefit from, from what you've, what you've got.
Speaker A:Two reduces, it reduces toxicity and stress, and it gives you a much higher sense of self worth, which helps you in relationships with other people.
Speaker B:So by being grateful, you're being more open to other people and new ideas and other opportunities and new opportunities.
Speaker A:So imagine if you go into retirement and this is.
Speaker A:Actually, I would like to sort of move across to the areas in retirement, for example, where people retire and disengage when you retire.
Speaker A:And a lot of people retire from their work and from life because they've had all these friendships at work and suddenly in a nanosecond, it's gone.
Speaker A:And they're not keen on making new friendships.
Speaker A:They're still clinging to the old friendships, which in a sense has gone.
Speaker A:But you also realize that in retirement, and I experienced this personally.
Speaker A:That's why I know it's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:There is that you start harking back to the good old days.
Speaker A:Well, if you're still thinking about the good old days, it means where you are, where you're at now is not a good place.
Speaker A:There's no.
Speaker B:So, George, a question comes in that applies to this.
Speaker B:You know, if you want to be in retirement and you want to be moving forward and engaged and not disengaged, as you said.
Speaker B:But we're in the time of a pandemic where it's much more difficult to be engaged.
Speaker B:What are you finding in your community, in the baby boomer community, that people are doing to try and stay engaged?
Speaker B:How are you helping them?
Speaker A:Well, I'm not directly responsible for that, but I will say you just need to look at Zoom.
Speaker A:In December last year, Zoom had 10 million people daily on their Zoom interface.
Speaker A:Right now, they've got 300 million each day, 10 million to 300 million.
Speaker A:That's where everybody's gone.
Speaker A:That's how they're keeping engagement.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Okay, but I was thinking of engagement, I guess, in a broader sense, like engaged in your interests and your purpose.
Speaker B:You know, you're.
Speaker B:I know some of your modules talk about that.
Speaker A:All right, all right, let me.
Speaker A:Let me just say this.
Speaker A:I think that the pandemic is a.
Speaker A:Is a little difficult to discuss, and I'll tell you why.
Speaker A:It's because it's so fresh and new, and everybody's trying to find their feet, so it's difficult to sort of, you know, give an answer that would make sense overall.
Speaker A:But I think people are struggling to find their way.
Speaker A:What I can tell you is what I've done in that space of time in the three months since we've had this pandemic, I've spent every day working on my program, on my social media, and connecting with all the people who work with me.
Speaker A:So, in a sense, the pandemic, I say this has actually been a blessing, because if there wasn't the pandemic, I would not have had the mindset or the wherewithal to literally throw myself in to do what I'm doing.
Speaker B:So there you go.
Speaker B:There was your opportunity from the crisis.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:So what I'm saying is, is that, you know, is your glass half full or half empty?
Speaker A:If you.
Speaker A:If we've been programmed to think negatively, we need to change that program.
Speaker A:And this applies not just in retirement, but outside retirement, too.
Speaker A:But I focus on retiring baby boomers because I'm a retiring baby boomer.
Speaker A:And retired baby boomers are my community.
Speaker A:These are the people I could communicate with.
Speaker A:I understand their plight, I understand their problems.
Speaker A:And I've been on the journey.
Speaker A:So if you like in the, in the hero's journey sort of story, I'm the mentor who helps the hero on his journey.
Speaker A:Because we're all heroes in our own journeys, right?
Speaker A:And you're a CEO or a janitor, you have a hero's journey.
Speaker A:And so, you know, you make the most of what you've got and try not just, you know, trying to make an exciting life.
Speaker A:I mean, I'm a big adherent of Cicero.
Speaker A:And Cicero said old age is the crown of life.
Speaker A:Our act's last stage.
Speaker A:We're supposed to be actually not just having fun, but becoming the best of the best, our best selves, our higher selves at this stage in our lives and not focusing just on the money.
Speaker A:You put retirement planning on Google and all you're going to get is financial advice.
Speaker A:There is very few if any coaches who teach you about retirement and what you should be thinking, how you should be looking at this.
Speaker A:I spent a great deal of time studying retirement.
Speaker A:And the way I discovered that the whole thing is a complete waste of time.
Speaker A:Started off when I studied where retirement started.
Speaker A:And as far as recorded history goes, it started with Caesar Augustus.
Speaker A:When his uncle Julius Caesar had been assassinated in Senate, he wanted to make sure the Imperial Roman army was on his side.
Speaker A:So he created this pension fund called the Aarium Military, which is the military pension fund.
Speaker A:And he put 6 million sisters of his own money in it.
Speaker A:And guess what happened?
Speaker A:That fund grew and grew and grew.
Speaker A:It became the fattest nest egg in Rome.
Speaker A:Bit like Social Security in the US and then what happened in two emperors lifetimes, the Senate had taken loans out against it and sucked it dry.
Speaker A:But the point is, Caesar Augustus introduced it in order to co opt the military onto his side.
Speaker A:Smart move.
Speaker A:He wasn't a military guy.
Speaker A:And if you're not, you know, if you don't have muscle, you hire muscle.
Speaker A:And that's what he did.
Speaker A:And then of course, it only really started coming back with Abraham Lincoln.
Speaker A:Abraham Lincoln introduced pensions.
Speaker A:And you know, he's kind of also one of my heroes.
Speaker A:Abraham Lincoln introduced, I was kind of mortified when I heard this.
Speaker A:He introduced pensions in order to beef up the north, you know, the, the northern army in the Civil War, you know, I mean, boys came in by the thousands because of pensions, you know, the promise of pensions and so on.
Speaker A:And then after the Civil War, the Pensions were increased so that the soldiers wouldn't go hungry and then rape and pillage the towns and countryside.
Speaker A:So there was always a social reason for retirement.
Speaker A:It was never for our own good.
Speaker A:And here's the thing, you move across to Europe, Bismarck introduced it, in fact.
Speaker A:Bismarck, Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor introduced retirement, and he plugged in the age of 64, five as retirement age.
Speaker A:Interesting thing, this guy was a smart cookie.
Speaker A:Life expectancy was 58 in Germany at the time.
Speaker A:So he knew most of the people wouldn't make it.
Speaker A:And so there's always a purpose for retirement which is never for our own benefit, and I will prove it.
Speaker A:Why it's not to our benefit because it's proved medically that, that when we retire, in the.
Speaker A:In the true sense of the word retire, we're basically withdrawing from life.
Speaker A:Literally, we're making a decision to withdraw from life.
Speaker A:And it's an unnatural state to be in because look around nature, nothing retires.
Speaker A:It's either growing or dying.
Speaker A:So when we elect to retire, we're electing to die.
Speaker A:And Dr. Bruce Lipton, who's a eminent cell biologist, proves that.
Speaker A:Our outer gut, we're made of 50 trillion cells, and our outer gut has tens of billions of cells replenished every 72 hours.
Speaker A:To do that, you need energy, you need to be doing stuff.
Speaker A:And when you stop doing stuff, that's going to impact on your physical health as well as your mental health, because you're not using it.
Speaker A:So you can imagine retirement is actually slowly, physically breaking you down.
Speaker B:All right, George, so much information, and I can absolutely follow your historical interests because you definitely have a lot of history that you can share with us, as well as scientific knowledge about how the brain works and the body works.
Speaker B:So thank you so much for this.
Speaker A:My pleasure, Wendy.
Speaker B:For all of you listening, if there are people that you think would benefit from this conversation, please go ahead and tag them and share this with them and also let us know that you have enjoyed it.
Speaker B:I would like to also talk to you about who is our guest for next week.
Speaker B:Her name is Brandy Blizzard.
Speaker B:And Brandy has been providing training to care staff, families and to the greater community for over 10 years through her Understanding Dementia Workshop and the Dementia Live Experience.
Speaker B:Did you know that Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the us?
Speaker B:So there is going to be so much to learn from Brandy, and I really encourage you all to invite your friends and your loved ones to join us in that conversation.
Speaker B:And as we are on this retirement journey, we hope that we don't move into that stage.
Speaker B:But, you know, we all know somebody that either has experienced dementia in their families or in their own friendship group, and it does impact all of us.
Speaker B:So I think that Brandy is going to be an amazing guest next week.
Speaker B:As you were.
Speaker B:George, thank you.
Speaker B:Always a wonderful conversation with you.
Speaker A:Thank you, Wendy.
Speaker A:Thank you for having me on your program.
Speaker A:Appreciate it.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So, by the way, when I am not doing this broadcast, I work with individuals and groups who want to spread the word about the work that they are doing and how it impacts the baby Boomer community.
Speaker B:So if you'd like to talk about how to do that, just message me on the hey Boomer page.
Speaker B:Also, if you haven't noticed, I put a little send email button at the top of the page.
Speaker B:So if you want to be on my email list for a Monday morning reminder about the broadcast, please go ahead and send me an email.
Speaker B:CS Lewis reminded us that you are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.
Speaker B:Thank you for joining me today.
Speaker B:Let's continue meeting weekly Dream and Share.
Speaker B:And I am so grateful for all of you.
Speaker B:My name is Wendy Greene and this has been hey Boomer.
