The traditional senior culture is waiting to embrace retirees who don't plan for the kind of life they want after they leave work. Whether you live boldly or wither away at that time is your choice.
When Mary Lloyd asked me to review her book, Bold Retirement: Mining Your Own Silver for a Rich Life I agreed but with some trepidation. There are two words in the title that are turnoffs for me: “retirement” and “silver.” I loathe and detest the word “retirement” and the word “silver” conjures up visions of well off couples playing golf and going on cruises as a lifestyle. Even though the word “bold” is used to modify the word “retirement” in a positive way I thought, “Well, here’s one more book that tells old people how to live life as a pastime.”
I said I’d review it so I jumped into my usual “let’s get this over with” speed-reading mode but quickly slowed down to savor what the author was saying. If you’ve ever started to read a book and after reading just one paragraph you know you don’t want to put it down, this is one of those books. It is immediately clear that Mary Lloyd is a brilliant woman with a definite flair for writing engaging prose. Yes, she talks about retirement, but not in the way I had expected.
Mary sees retirement as the beginning of a new and exciting phase of life – if you approach it properly. You’ve seen or read books with the same focus, but Bold Retirement is in a class of its own. I promise, this book is different, in more ways than I can count. It takes a lot for me to be this impressed.
Bold Retirement not only tells you how to prepare for a fulfilling retirement, if you want to want to use the word “retirement”. Mary calls it "leaving work." The author gives you real tools to help you discover who you are now and how to decide what you really want to do with the rest of your life that will be fulfilling. There are pages and pages of exercises that will help you get to know yourself as you never have before. It’s a bit scary but also intensely liberating.
Bold Retirement will help you in the following ways:
• Challenge the false limits assumed to be part of “aging”
• Discover what’s uniquely important for YOU
• Access the energy to live retirement exuberantly
• Define your best lifestyle and direction
• Develop skills for achieving a satisfying vibrant retirement
And it’s all done in the most engaging manner you can possibly imagine. Here are some chapter headings that indicate you are in for some entertaining and challenging reading:
• Mental Monkey Bars
• Nuts and Bolts and Other Physical Stuff
• Marshmallows, Icicles & Prickly Things in the Dark
• Managing Zucchini
• Cut the List for the Whole Enchilada
If you are close to “retirement” Bold Retirement is a must read. It could be life changing and even life saving because you probably have not thought about the future in the mind-opening way Mary Lloyd does. If you are into “retirement” and have gotten stuck in a rut, this book will help you lift yourself out of your rut and up into the life you want and deserve.
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