Is your life glass half full or half empty?

Do you see your life so far like a glass half full or a glass half empty? I prefer to see it as half empty. Why? Because so far I have been enjoying life to the full and I intend to ensure it is filled to overflowing by the time I "drop off the perch".

The Invisible Me

I have come to love writing poetry from time to time. I find it therapeutic and a very personal way of publicly expressing the real Peter Nicholls, the person I love to be. The message of course applies equally to you and to everyone you meet. As you read it, let the real you free and enjoy being your true authentic self.

Then allow yourself to take charge of creating your future, so that you blossom into the mature human being you were born to be. It's never too late.

The Invisible Me

There is a me you cannot see,

A me that even I can’t see,

The person I was born to be,

The soul that lives inside of me.

Sometimes I see a fantasy,

The younger me I used to be,

A Peter Pan, forever free

To stay the person I love to be.

You would see me differently,

Perhaps someone you want to see,

A portrait that you paint of me,

The person you presume I’d be.

Please accept the reality

Of an inner me I long to free,

To be the person I was meant to be,

And to love the person I know as me.

Our common responsibility

Is not to assume who others might be,

Don’t put them in boxes, nor steal the key

That allows their talents to set them free.

We all are different, you must agree,

Unique in our talent and ability,

We yearn to allow the world to see

What we can do and give and be.

My message for the world to agree

Is for you to be you and me to be me,

To follow our passions and set them free,

To enjoy being you and enjoy being me.

Retirement Planning isn't just about the money

Google Alert on my computer gives me a weekly report on anything written online to do with retirement planning. I kid you not that everything I see on retirement planning is about the money. That's of course very important, or there wouldn't be so many articles written about it. But I seem to be the only person on the planet who takes a professional interest and provides professional help about what you are going to DO in retirement. It's a very scary subject for most working people and perhaps they want to avoid discussing it.

That's a real pity. It is potentially the most stimulating stage of one's life (and I am now 70!) - having the chance to plan life on your terms rather than on the terms of others. That includes any decision to keep on working - only now you make all the decisions on your own terms - what sort of work, how many hours, what goals you want to achieve, and so on.

You can get a taste of what I mean by reading my article "I Wanna Be a Kid Again", at http://www.workleisure.com/resources/Iwannabeakid.html . As a client of mine once defined retirement " hey, what's for dessert?? I've just finished the main course and I'm still hungry!"