Hi, it’s Dr. Denise and I just want to talk to you about how plans can go awry.
We can make plans and we can think that certain things are going to be happening, but they don’t always happen. Stuff will interfere. I was talking to a fellow woodland owner and that person was saying to me they had all these plans for what to do in the wood and then life’s gone in the way. They’ve not been able to do the things that they were going to do
And it got me thinking about retirement and somebody I was talking to more recently as well, and they had lots of plans for how their retirement was going to go. But then they became ill and they had some significant health issues and everything they planned to do is not going to happen.
They’re not going to be going off to do the traveling that they planned and they’re going to have to make some major changes to their life.
So, as we think about retirement, whether we’re in our fifties or sixties, whether we can see it as imminent or something on the distant horizon, we can imagine it’s going to be a certain way.
But at any age, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know if we are going to have a major setback in life or just any life change that can mean that plans are no longer going to happen.
And that’s why I think it’s often worth having, you know, a plan A and a plan B. So, you might think, right, I’m going to carry on working until I’m 75 and this, that and the other. I’m going to have this really flexible life and I’m going to do all this traveling. I really wanted to do.
But will you, and hopefully you will, but if something gets in the way that stops that happening, what is it that will still mean that you feel that your life is of significance, even if you’ve not been able to achieve all the things that at a younger age you thought you were going to be able to.
And I really think it’s useful to have a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C. So, we’ve got different alternatives about how we’re going to move forward. And some of them, hopefully we’ll all go ahead and we can do, but if not, we’ve already thought through an alternative.
I’ve currently got a pain in my knee and I’ve had a pain in my knee before and I know I need to rest it more and it generally sorts itself out. Go and see a chiropractor, do some exercises, et cetera.
But if the knee turned really bad, which meant that I was walking, you know, with a stick and I couldn’t stand up for much and I had to stop dancing. It would be a disappointment.
So, then I’d have to think, well, what is it that I could do that would, replace that in my life?
So that’s what I want you to do today, is just to think about you have a plan, you think you know how life is going to turn out, but just in case it doesn’t, what is your backup plan?
And I’m thinking of this sort of around retirement, but clearly you could be listening to this at any age and it’s still relevant to you.
So, another one of my helpful thoughts, I hope. Take care, and until next time, it’s Dr. Denise. Bye-by