A quarterly tribute to the power of one. Here’s an inspirational quote to help you reflect on the past quarter and take it with you in the New Year. Download it as a beautiful background for your computer or a poster to hang up. Let it be a constant reminder in the New Year that you are braver than you believe, stronger than you feel, and smarter than you think.
You are already living the sweet life of a Savvy Solo. How can it possibly get better? Add these three unconventional tips to your routines. You’ll soon find the better it gets, the better it gets.
When reading articles about the joys of solo living, the first comment is usually, “I’m the ruler of my domain. I can do what I want when I want!” However, being a ruler doesn’t absolve you of responsibility. There is no power in living a life of reckless abandon.
Dr. Jordan Peterson speaks about learning how to negotiate with yourself as both employer and employee. We must learn balance. As a ruler, you can lead by denial, bulldozing, gaslighting, and shaming. It will lead to a life of suffering and powerlessness. Or you can be a leader that lives to serve.
Be kind, loving, and accepting of all aspects of yourself. Lead by putting yourself first. Give yourself every opportunity to grow and reach your full potential. As a leader, you are responsible for creating a spirit of collaboration and resolving conflict within yourself. How? The Universe gave you the perfect partner – your conscious.
What is the conscious? It’s the whisper, the gentle nudge that encourages you to move forward.
Maggie wasn’t unhappy with the company she worked for, but her job made her miserable. She saw a company posting for a new job. The thought, “Apply for that job,” went through her mind for a brief second.
“Are you crazy?” she resisted. “I hate applying for jobs, and I hate it even more, when I have to interview. Why should I go through this effort for a lateral move? No, I won’t do it!” was her knee-jerk reaction. By now, she knew the consequences of not acting on those gentle impulses.
So, she applied for the new role while rolling her eyes at every new step. Did Maggie get the job? No. The manager was so impressed with Maggie that she created a new role. Maggie earned a promotion, more creative freedom, and a raise.
Don’t worry if you don’t listen to the “whisper,” it will get louder. As the Universe serves you, learn to serve yourself. Before you serve, love, and lead others, you must first master these traits in yourself.
Quote: Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is power. Lao Tzu
Quote: Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt.
Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.” -Mark Twain.
Parker always disliked the side of her that people described as “mousy.” She took extreme measures to eradicate this character from her personality. To the outside world, she appeared fierce and fearless. On the inside, she was still terrified of everything.
In a last-ditch effort, she prayed to have “One Year of No Fear.” Boy, was that a dumb request. For one year, she went through hell as the Universe threw one terrifying situation after another at her.
Parker was stressed to the point her hair started to fall out, and she developed the onset of high blood pressure. A friend told her, “Parker, you have to do something to bring this under control because this type of prolonged stress kills.”
During this year, Parker listened to many spiritual teachers and their practices. She kept the methods that worked for her; the ones that didn’t, she ignored. In month 8, everything crystalized.
She finally understood how to use these new spiritual practices to navigate the difficult (and joyful) times. In one terrifying year, Parker earned the spiritual maturity she could not achieve in the past three decades.
When Parker looked at the past year, she realized she was never in danger. She created fear in her mind by catastrophizing every moment in graphic detail.
There is a tremendous spiritual lesson attached to solo living. The space you’ve decided to live in is a spiritual contract between you and the Universe. In other words, your home is a school, playground, or staging area.
The Universe sends you lessons, and you work on them. You fail, and you try again. If you pass, you get a more complex lesson. Everything you encounter has one purpose – to help you grow spiritually. It shows you that
Most of all, solo living teaches you to trust yourself. Your home is a safe place where there is no failure, judgment, or punishment except what you impose on yourself.
Ask yourself, “What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?” Then get to it.
Have you considered doing nothing? Sometimes doing nothing is the most productive thing you can do. You must find periods in your life to unplug and do nothing.
Some are so addicted to thinking they cannot conceive of doing nothing. Let’s put a name to the addiction to thinking. It’s worry.
Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” Worrying will not solve a problem; it has no useful function.
Many studies show that prolonged worry keeps you in the fight or flight mode produces cortisol. These levels of stress can put your health at risk.
Here are a few sites that have articles about the importance of doing nothing:
The best part of solo living can be slow living. Finding time to do nothing can change your outlook on life, literally. Take the opportunity to work meditation into your schedule a few minutes a day and add a minute or two every week.
Watch: How to break free from worry – Eckhart Tolle
2023 is coming up fast. What is your plan? Do you know what you want to accomplish? Or is your plan to drift through another year, stressed and flying by the seat of your pants? Did you have a plan for 2022? If not, how did the year turn out for you? Please listen to the video below by Dr. Jordan Peterson to find the proper way to make a schedule. If your schedule feels like a jail sentence, you’re doing it wrong.
This is an important video bought to you by the Grow Successful channel on YouTube. People use the cliché, “it will change your life forever.” It’s nonsense. The only person that can change your life forever is you. If you’re overwhelmed, you change your life by taking action, one step at a time.
Time Index
0:00 – Stop suffering
1:08 – Get your act together
2:05 – Spend time making your life better – 10 minutes at a time
3:00 – Start where you can
3:21 – You see what you expect to see
4:10 – Aim up
5:10 – Once you aim, the world reconfigures around your aim
When you keep saying, “I’m broke,” “I can’t afford it,” “Prices are too high,” “People are mean,” or “I hate my job,” you know where you’re headed.
8:10 – Negotiate your schedule
Every part of you has to agree. The party animal has to agree to work. The no-nonsense part of you has to agree to play. Keep your commitment to yourself.
Example: The “all work” part of you can’t say, “I know, I know, but just five more minutes,” which turns into 5 more hours. The part of you that needs to play (or needs a break) cannot be cast aside.
The part that doesn’t want to work can’t say, “Just 5 more minutes of TV,” “I’m going to rest my eyes for just 10 minutes,” or “I’m going to focus on these NON-PRODUCTIVE tasks until I run out of time today.”
You are saying you cannot be trusted when you break your word to yourself. You commit to your plan every day. Even if you fail, you must get up the next day and try again.
10:10 – Your mission – DISCIPLINE
You know in your gut when you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing because you feel AWFUL. It’s that nagging sense that you’re wasting time. It’s not the same as, “Be afraid and do it anyway.”
11:25 – Pursuing your highest goals
11:41 – What to do when you’re not happy
I’ll share something with you. I have a remote job. Comically, I thought the office politics, mean people, and terrible work conditions would go away. NOPE! For me, it got worse.
When I feel upset or afraid, I walk to my fridge and look at my calendar and look at my note, “Focus on what you CAN do.”
I shut my eyes and think:
Did it work? I got a promotion in six months, and left the mean-spirited jerks behind. 😊
When people/situations are no longer relevant to your life, you don’t have to resist or work hard to make them disappear. They will disappear when they have nothing left to teach you.
12:50 – Two things to pursue
14:14 – What will sustain you during evil times
15:48 – The gloves come off. Welcome to basic training, aka boot camp.
16:40 – Mortal Combat
17:56 – The world shifting around your aims (apparently, worth repeating)
19:08 – CHAOS IS COMING
Several reports state we will go into recession in 2023. Some reports say it will happen in 2023 Q1; others say it will happen 2023 Q3. However, finance gurus have been screaming about a recession since Covid hit. You never know, but it never hurts to be prepared whether the recession hits or not.
20:15 – Twisting the fabric of reality
22:05 – The Kierkegaardian Leap of Faith is an interesting concept. Click the link for an explanation. If moment 2:58 of this 3-minute video doesn’t make you ROTFLOL, I don’t know what will.
23:15 – Why have a goal?
23:48 – Setting vs. Attaining a goal
24:24 – What should be your goal?
25:46 – PLAN YOUR GAME – the rules of your game must make sense to you
26:57 – Life is pain – don’t resist it; embrace it
Why make a plan now? Currently, you have 1.5 months to reflect on what you need to change and devise a plan to stick with. Hopefully, it will prevent you from procrastinating to the last second and coming up with lame, weak resolutions you’ll end up breaking three days into the New Year. I mean it; get on it.
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you always got.
~Tony Robbins
How did 2022 turn out for you? Were you one of the millions caught up in the emotion of the Great Resignation? Were you a rage quitter or a quiet quitter? It was exhilarating at the time. For a second, corporate America panicked, and they started handing out reasonable, livable wages.
The tables have turned. The same people that resigned ran out of unemployment, savings, or both, and are now desperate for work. Corporate America is well aware of it, and they are offering wages that are even lower than before. People are being laid off by the thousands (by email)!
If you’re tired of begging for scraps like a dog, it’s time to create your own game. I’m not saying it will be easy. Depending on where you are in your journey, it can be incredibly difficult. Do not look at others a decade (or more) into their journey and compare yourself to them or ask, “Why can’t I make $1M tomorrow?”
The first step is to dig yourself out of the hole you created. It could take months, years, or decades. You will never get out of the hole if you drift aimlessly with no plan to get where you want to go. Playground or battlefield, what will you design?
Do you have a plan for 2023 that you would like to share? Do you have questions or concerns about making a plan for 2023? Please, submit a comment below. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Solo Agers are people (aged 50+) who never married or had children by choice. This means that Generation X is heading toward their retirement years. This is the Do-It-Yourself generation.
We are a generation of survivors. Whatever life throws our way, we meet the challenge. “Live today, fight tomorrow” sometimes becomes the mantra of a survivalist. That mantra can leave you in a dangerous space.
We live our lives like teenagers – we think we’re invincible and nothing can harm us. We believe because we are in good health and financial standing today, we’ll be ok tomorrow. Our financial plan is to roll the dice, cross our fingers, and hope we don’t roll snake eyes.
Dailey turned 55 in 2020, around the same time that Covid hit. He started to experience severe joint pain, especially in his hands. He is a carpenter, which means his hands are his livelihood. However, his joint pain prevented him from working for long periods.
The pain kept him awake at night. He finally went to see a doctor. Over the age of 40, hearing the words, “Oh, that comes with age” from your doctor is commonplace.
Dailey is a Savvy Solo that experienced the downside of aging for the first time. At this point, he should ask the following questions:
Kinda strikes fear in your heart, doesn’t it? At first, it struck fear in Dailey’s heart too. In six months, his symptoms disappeared, and Dailey returned to business as usual.
This was a little wake-up call from the Universe. It was a gentle nudge to get Dailey to look at his circumstances and make changes. Have you had a wake-up call that you ignored?
Now, if this love letter from the Universe doesn’t make you jump up and take action, I don’t know what will. At Dailey’s age, he can retire in 12 years. He can retire in 2034.
Did I mention social security funds will deplete in, you guessed it, 2034? Our government won’t cut us completely off; they will reduce our benefits. We will get 77% of the benefits we were promised.
So that payout gets slashed to $1,283.20/month, which generously puts us just above the poverty line.
As stated in our last article, “Among people 75 and older, the labor force is expected to grow by 96.5% over the next decade. Now, we can see why.
I just realized it too. If 96.5% of people aged 75 will have to work, that means the retirees who built a retirement account didn’t save enough. Fifty-one percent (51%) of those over 50 have retirement accounts. The average retirement account is $141,542. That means most retirees will burn through their savings and have to go back to work.
I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in donning the “paper hat” and standing on my feet all day at some McJob. You have a lifetime of experience. It’s time to think outside the box and use your brain instead of your brawn to build a healthy financial status. Start with these steps:
Quite frankly, financially, you have never made it on your own:
You need support personally and professionally. Being a Savvy Solo is knowing the difference between standing alone and when there’s strength in numbers.
Listen, no one is asking you to be the next Bill Gates. To paraphrase Gary Vaynerchuk, you don’t need to make a billion dollars. You need to make enough to live a lifestyle that allows you freedom of choice and to live in a place with all the support you can handle. Are you with me?
Open your eyes. Use this simple retirement calculator, and let’s make a plan to help us be Savvy Solos for decades to come. See you in Part IV – Solopreneurs, entrepreneurs & digital native brands.
Time flies when you’re having fun. Before you know it, you have a couple of years until retirement. You’ve had struggles, and at times you were living paycheck-to-paycheck, but you’re a survivor who always manages to make ends meet.
The truth is you haven’t saved for your retirement at all. As a solo ager, you have only one question on your mind. Will I be ok? Let’s ask the Spirit of Halloween future…
This infographic shows statistics for solo agers. It’s scary, isn’t it? This article is short and sweet because it’s a wake-up call. We could focus on horror stories or beat ourselves up over procrastination and financial missteps. That won’t change anything. We need to focus on what we can do and take action. The first action we must take is to make a choice.
C’mon, solo agers, those finances aren’t going to build themselves; it’s time to get to work building a future that allows you to thrive. Join The Savvy Solo for future articles as we prepare to repair our finances, and maintain our independence. Let’s take advantage of every opportunity that allows us to age in place with dignity and grace.
Have a happy and safe Halloween.
A quarterly tribute to the power of one. Here’s an inspirational quote to help you reflect on the past quarter. It’s set on a beautiful background. You can download it as a background for your computer or as a poster you can hang up. Look at it often as a source of reflection as you plan for your next quarter.
