Lyn: 00:41

Hey, dear lovely listeners. It's Lynn Nicholoff, your podcast host. Get cozy and grab a cuppa because you're in for a treat. Welcome to don't retire, re inspire, your go to pod cast for an inside look at my journey into a retirement that's not just about kicking back, but about kicking it up a notch and finding new ways to make every moment count. Join me as we embark on this exhilarating adventure together, exploring the myriad of possibilities that retirement has to offer.

Lyn: 01:14

From discovering new passions to reigniting old ones, we'll delve into the heart of what it means to truly live life to the fullest even after bidding farewell to the 9 to 5 grind. Expect some heartwarming stories and practical tips to help you navigate your own path to a retirement that's brimming with purpose and fulfillment. So sit back, relax, and get ready to be inspired as we uncover the secrets to a retirement that's anything but retiring. Today, we're delving into the subject of how to keep the fire burning by rediscovering our passion in retirement. In the last episode, I shared the story of how I started my journey.

Lyn: 01:58

If you recall, it was all sparked by a light bulb moment during a pity party. I knew I didn't want a stereotypical retirement. I want something that meets my needs because I want to remain relevant. Anyhoo, looking for guidance, I searched for something like the AA guidebooks of places to see and stay, but I couldn't find any. Next, I searched for a suitable qualification.

Lyn: 02:24

Only I soon realized that retirement is a sort of do it yourself affair. It is what you make of it. So if I'm to shape the next 20 years of my life in an authentic, joyful way, then I need to find out what really ignites my interest to find my passion. And that's what today's podcast is all about, finding ways to discover our passion because it isn't always obvious. Let's get started.

Lyn: 02:53

While the sun is shining, it's going to be a great day. And while it's a frosty morning here in the heartland, I must say that I'm feeling pretty energized and determined to find out how I can uncover uncover what truly excites me. I'm on a mission to discover my purpose, to find my passion. And to be honest, I feel extra motivated this morning as I have just read on the RNZ app that there is an 82 year old man currently seeking gardening work after selling his lawn mowing and gardening business. Yep.

Lyn: 03:28

He too is finding the headwinds of ageism, like a Canterbury Norwester that knocks you off your feet or a southerly gale in Wellington when the umbrellas resemble dead ants as they get turned inside out. Quite frankly, if I had the disposable income, I would invite the octogenarian to nip my garden into shape. Interestingly and relevant for today's podcast, he comments that the thing he likes the most about the job is to create order from disorder, and there it is. That's his passion. I think there's a few places in the world right now that could do with nipping into shape, but I digress.

Lyn: 04:10

So here I am sitting in the sun with a hot cuppa all fired up, ready to find ways to discover my passion and thinking it will be as easy as leafing through the dog eared and butter stained pages of the Edmunds cookbook looking for inspiration. Ah, there it is. Ladysmith cake, my favorite. Okay. Top let's put the oven on, cream the butter and sugar, and voila, a perfect cake.

Lyn: 04:36

Unless life's not that easy. What to do? What to do? I am reminded of the mystical oracle. Have you ever heard of the mystical oracle?

Lyn: 04:50

Well, I'm unsure of its correct name or even if it's actually a thing. But I recall back in the early seventies, my mom and I found it in the center of one of my gran's weekly magazines. Talking of which, we were into the circular economy back then. Yes. We were.

Lyn: 05:06

The magazines, after being read by my gran, were then passed on to us and then used to rip the potato peelings. We cut out pictures for the scrapbook. And when we were especially poor, we used it as toilet paper. No waste in our household back in the day. Anyhoo, back to the mystical oracle.

Lyn: 05:26

My mom and I would ask it all manner of pressing questions like, would I find love soon, and would we have enough money to pay the electricity bill? The answer being either yes or no. Now my mom was a bit of a believer in these kinds of divination tools, and she she also read her horoscopes every day. Now in asking the mystical oracle about the pressing problem of the moment, she had a strategy if she didn't like the answer. We asked it again.

Lyn: 05:56

Our mystical oracle evenings were always accompanied by a bottomless pot of tea that was kept hot, thanks to the crocheted tea cozy that Gran had made for us. And we usually ended the evening when we laughed so much that we all almost peed our pants or mom's fall teeth false teeth fell out or usually both. No one else in the family joined us for these evenings, but we loved the closed questions, yes or no answers that made the complexities of life easy to understand. It was our thing. And right now, I need our thing.

Lyn: 06:32

I need the mystical oracle to answer my questions about finding my passion. Like, is gardening my passion? Yes or no? Is knitting my passion? Yes or no?

Lyn: 06:44

Do I need a pet? Yes or no? Get the idea? Sadly, the mystical oracle is lost in the mists of time, and I also miss those moments with my late mum. Okay.

Lyn: 06:56

If there's no help coming from the mystical oracle, then I need to divine my own quest to find my passion. But how do I do that? I wondered. And then, dear listeners, I had an epiphany. You know, like those senior moments that you lose and then you find at the most inopportune moment, My epiphany was this.

Lyn: 07:18

Oops. It's gone. Nope. There it is. This is my epiphany.

Lyn: 07:24

This all seems a bit familiar. I think I've been here before. Yep. Almost 2 decades ago, I was in a similar funk, a transition crossroads with no signposts about where to go next. Anyhoo, my lovely neighbor suggested I read the book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, written by Susan Jeffers.

Lyn: 07:45

In its pages, I learned about the chatterbox. You know, the inner voice that questions your decisions and loves to tell you why you can't do something? Yeah. That one. The one that tells you you're fat, you're unworthy.

Lyn: 07:56

You know? You know that voice. Only I don't have a chatterbox. I've got a whole board meeting happening in there. Well, the writer assured me that you can turn off the inner chatterbox by living a balanced life and not putting all your eggs in 1 basket.

Lyn: 08:14

Such that if you spend all your time focusing on a narrow set of things like work in a relationship, then if one of those things is taken away, you feel the loss more keenly. And at that time, when I was reading the book, that was my problem. I had to change careers. It was a point of transition. But as I devoted a large proportion of my life to work, I was truly bereaved.

Lyn: 08:41

Not too dissimilar to retirement and feeling the loss of work keenly. The author assured me that there must be balance in our life and suggested dividing our time into 9 boxes where each box contains one aspect of our life such as work, friends, family, hobbies, exercise, relationship, gardening, etcetera. And if we do this, she promised, then we will live a more balanced life. We will be in a state of equilibrium. So maybe that's my problem.

Lyn: 09:16

I'm not in equilibrium. Just like a chemistry experiment where the reaction goes in one direction only, And the next thing, your condenser tubes have exploded, sending shards of contaminated glass into the lab. Yep. Been there. Done that.

Lyn: 09:32

Got that badge. I've also burnt the ends of biros and bunsen burners, ignited beakers of myths when trying to boil out the chlorophyll from a geranium leaf, and mix sodium metal with water, almost blowing off the wooden sink covers in the lab that stunk of rat urine. Remember that smell from the labs of old? Anyway, anyhoo, so to regain balance in my life, according to the book, I needed to fill the fear and do it anyway. What I then thought about my fears.

Lyn: 10:05

Now I'm terrified of walking on the glass floor at this top of the sky tower. I am mortally terrified of heights, having fainted at the top of my one and only Ferris wheel ride. And as a child, my sister made me climb to the top of the bell tower in the cate Christchurch Cathedral. And I was so terrified, I clung onto the wooden steps shaking all over and crying while she laughed at me. No.

Lyn: 10:32

I am not going to feel those fears and do them anyway. They are off the agenda. I can assure you climbing a rock wall was not going to awaken a twilight passion. But thinking on that, I wonder if they take gold card discounts. Back to the book and my historic funk.

Lyn: 10:52

If I was going to feel the fear and do it anyway, then I needed to find what I was fearful of trying. Well, there were 3 things that I had always wanted to try, singing, painting, and learning a musical instrument. I decided to give each a try. I was facing my fears. Now I had genetics on my side when it came to singing.

Lyn: 11:15

You see, my mother and grandmother had trained singing voices directed, then produced, and performed countless concerts on the front lawn, charging local kids a penny to attend. Although I must be honest, I was expelled from the choir at my high school accused of singing the third part to a 2 part harmony. And don't get me started on singing to my kids. They begged me to stop even when they were babies. And if they ever hear Mary Black singing, they are retraumatized.

Lyn: 12:00

Anyhoo, I decide to join a singing group, you know, feel the fear and all that. And like a moment of serendipity, I spied an advert in the local community newspaper. A community choir was seeking new members. Well, that sounds like me. That didn't go too well.

Lyn: 12:18

Picture this. Me, tone deaf, belting out tunes alongside an octogenarian choir mistress who kept losing the middle c on her piano. Bless her heart. But after a year, much to everyone's relief, I bade farewell to the choir and choir mistress who was now losing more than the middle c. My next fear was painting.

Lyn: 12:39

My sister and mother were great artists. Surely, if they could do it, so can I? I searched the local community paper for art classes and saw there was a 10 week watercolor beginner class starting soon. Sounds like me? I had visions of me with a little painting and brush, dabbing water onto the cakes of paint, and voila, a masterpiece.

Lyn: 13:03

However, I forgot you have to have ideas about what to paint first, and I was not good at that part. And so I returned to my preferred style of painting using rollers, resin paint, and copious amounts of masking tape. I did make some lovely friends along the way, which ticked 1 of the 9 boxes, new friends. I decided not to learn a musical instrument. I mean, can you imagine me wrestling with a cello or a harp?

Lyn: 13:31

So at that moment, I'd bid adieu to Susan Jeffer's book and donated it to the local thrift store hoping someone else might find their spark in its pages. But the lesson I learned back then is relevant to my current quest. Finding your passion isn't a walk in the park. Sometimes you're just singing the 3rd part to a 2 part harmony, and that's okay. It's all part of the journey.

Lyn: 13:56

So if the mystical oracle and feeling the fear and doing it anyway were not helping me in my quest to find my passion, then maybe I can find some inspiration in life's curved balls. Some years ago, life threw me a curved ball that left me bidding farewell to my job and, essentially, my career. It was a seismic shift. I had no idea what to do next. And with no job prospects and no clear direction, just a mortgage to pay and kids to look after, I was truly bereft.

Lyn: 14:29

Sound familiar? It's that classic tale of transition leaving 1 chapter behind and diving into the unknown. So I tried my hand at contract writing, something totally new to me. Sure, I dabbled in creative writing before, but journalism, copywriting, that was uncharted territory. Yet armed with just a computer and a bucket full of ideas, I managed to get a few articles published in a local community newspaper.

Lyn: 14:57

Not exactly the big league, but it was a start. And I had stumbled upon something unexpected, a love for storytelling. Who knew? With time, I honed my writing skills and gained confidence. I even learned more about word and sentence grammar, like the difference between there, there, and there.

Lyn: 15:16

I even managed to get a couple of contracts as an editor. Then out of the blue, a friend suggested I become a celebrant. Me? A celebrant? Talk about a plot twist.

Lyn: 15:30

During the training, it dawned on dawned on me that crafting ceremony for life's milestones was my happy place. Clients seemed to like my style, and a light bulb flickered on as a particularly challenging funeral ceremony. After the service, an elderly lady approached me misty eyed and shared how my words had brought her departed friend back to life if only for a moment. She felt her presence in my voice and in my words. And that's when it clicked.

Lyn: 16:03

I'd found my calling. From there, I pivoted into adult education, delivering literacy programs, coaching budding leaders, and whipping up training materials. I have a passion for helping people unlock their potential. I would not have discovered this without weathering that storm. Sometimes it takes adversity to uncover our true passions.

Lyn: 16:27

And you know what? I'm grateful for every twist and turn along the way. It's all part of the journey. But that was then, and this is now. And I'm on a journey to find my passion, and it doesn't matter mister then I'll need to ask myself some yes and no questions like the mystical oracle.

Lyn: 16:55

I will have to feel the fear and do it anyway to fill the gap left by leaving the formal workplace. And I'll need to make a transition by beginning a journey of discovery and inspiration. And that's the key to finding our passion. Feeling daunted? Maybe a little?

Lyn: 17:13

I am. But as American writer and baby boomer, Tracy Kidder, wrote, don't worry about being worried. You're heading out on an adventure, and you can always change your mind along the way and try something else. I'm gonna take his words to heart. So it's time to start doing something, anything.

Lyn: 17:35

Here's some ideas I'm going to try to kick start my journey of discovering my passion, and you might like to try 1 or some of them too. Reflect on your interests. I'm taking some time to think back on the things that have always intrigued me. No more painting or singing dreams for me. Those ships have sailed.

Lyn: 17:57

Trying new things. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and giving new activities a shot. I have enrolled in line dancing classes. Here I come. Who knows what hidden passions I might stumble upon?

Lyn: 18:11

Make time for exploration. I'm carving out regular time in my schedule to explore different activities and interests. I recently took a holiday to a new part of the country, and it was eye opening. More exploration is definitely on the cards. And I can highly recommend to you all a wonderful company that makes cards called GetLost Cards.

Lyn: 18:34

And if you need ideas for exploring, then do get a set. They're absolutely fantastic. Just search online for get lost cards. They're a great way to have a wonderful, trip that's full of exploring. Keeping a journal.

Lyn: 18:52

I'm jotting down my thoughts and experiences as I try new things. It's like a road map of my journey to discovering what truly excites me. Seeking feedback. I'm not afraid to ask friends and family for their input. Their insights might just uncover something I hadn't considered myself, like when my friend suggested I train as a celebrate celebrant.

Lyn: 19:15

She saw something in me I hadn't seen. And I think we can all learn a lot from the 82 year old man I spoke about earlier who's trying to find work. My feedback to him would be that he has a passion for creating order from disorder. So any job that does this would work for him, not just gardening. Stay open minded.

Lyn: 19:37

I'm approaching this journey with an open mind and a sense of curiosity. Who knows where it might lead? After all, I never imagined that writing a few articles for a community newspaper would lead to crafting ceremonies and a career in adult education. Follow your curiosity. I'm paying attention to what piques my interest and diving into it headfirst.

Lyn: 20:02

You never know what fascinating discoveries awake. Wait. I know that when I was exploring a new part of the country, I found myself chatting with a local villager who told me about a sea lion group who monitor the health and well-being of the local colony. Now that does pique my interest. Trust your instincts.

Lyn: 20:24

I'm trusting my gut as I navigate through different activities and interests. If it feels right, I'm all in. If not, I'm okay with letting it go. I have ideas about things I know will not be my passion like fishing, and that's okay too. So whether you're on this journey with me or you're someone who's keen to discover your passion, let's embrace the adventure together and see where it takes us.

Lyn: 20:50

Let's take a short break. And when we come back, we'll get started because the rest of our life starts right now. Welcome back. And if you're like me and are keen to uncover your passion and to live a reinspired life, then it's time to start the journey. It's also time to stop trying to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or waiting until the bus reaches the terminus.

Lyn: 21:24

Ring the bell right now and get off at the next stop. I recall my mum in the final weeks of her life saying to me, I want to get off and have another go. This is our chance to do what she so much wished to do. So I've rung the bell. It's time to get off the bus to help me identify things I could be trying.

Lyn: 21:46

I have brainstormed ideas that included some could be's and maybes with a few wildcards thrown in for good measure. And after chatting with my daughter, I have chosen three things to start with. Join the dance class that I spoke about earlier, to search job and volunteer websites for ideas, and to learn about podcasting. To keep me on track, I'm giving myself 3 months to achieve these goals, writing them in my diary as positive statements on the 3 month deadline. I've also created a visual diary of what I'm hoping to achieve.

Lyn: 22:22

I learned how to do this some years back, thanks to the book entitled The Winner's Bible. Simply, it involves creating a visual diary of your goals rather than word statements. So for dancing, I have an image of a line dancer who is wearing all the gears and oozing confidence. Yep. I want a Grapevine and Jazz Box with the best of them.

Lyn: 22:45

I know a visual diary works for me because when I had a goal to replace my lounge suite, I pasted a picture of 1 in the diary. Yet I had no idea how I would get one or how I would even pay for it. I just knew that I needed a new lounge suite as the current one had the stuffing coming out of the armrest. Amazingly, within 18 months, I had replaced the lounge suite, thanks to the visual diary keeping me focused on the goal. And I also used the same method for a new car.

Lyn: 23:15

But you can use whatever goal setting method works for you, whether it's SMART goals, visual board, or diary. However, goal setting is an important step to staying motivated on our journey to discover our passion so that we can break away from those retirement stereotypes. So how motivated are you feeling right now to live a reinspired life? It's okay to be honest with yourself. Change can be daunting, and it's also where the magic happens.

Lyn: 23:47

Well, I'm certainly feeling more positive now about starting my journey of discovering It's time to roll the dice in the game in Monopoly. Now will I stop at Whitechapel Road or Waterworks? Will I buy Marybourn Station or Mayfair? It's exciting not knowing what part chance and serendipity will play in my quest for a reinspired life. Dear listener, you may be ahead of me already and looking to take your passion to the next level.

Lyn: 24:17

If you are, then I congratulate you. But don't overlook the power of setting goals to keep you motivated. Take my neighbor. Since retiring, she's thrown herself into gardening with such gusto that her backyard looks like something out of the Gardener magazine. She is next planning to propagate plants for sale and is currently collecting used pot plant pots from friends and neighbors.

Lyn: 24:43

I'm impressed she is not just working on her current garden. She's also walk working towards her goal of selling plants. So as we wrap up this podcast, let's keep the fire burning in retirement. Remember, it's never too late to discover new passions and joy, whether it's reconnecting with old hobbies or venturing into uncharted territory. It's all about embracing this next chapter of our life with enthusiasm and positivity.

Lyn: 25:10

In the words of American comedian, actress, and baby boomer, Wanda Sykes, if you feel like there's something out there that you're supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it. Here's today's takeaway. It's time to throw off retirement stereotypes and live a re inspired life by discovering or uncovering our passions. The journey begins by trying new things, seeking feedback, and exploring the world around us. Keep motivated by setting goals, and it's okay if you try a few few things that don't bring you joy.

Lyn: 25:49

In that case, try something different or explore somewhere else. You're not a tree. You're not planted to the spot. Embrace the journey. Thanks for your company today.

Lyn: 26:01

Join me for our next episode when we'll be chatting about exploring new horizons in a reinspired life. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to describe subscribe to our podcast for more uplifting conversations and inspiring stories. And, hey, if you have a passion project or a time and adventure you'd like to share, we'd love to hear from you. Drop us a message. We're all ears.

Lyn: 26:38

Until next time, keep dreaming, keep exploring, and keep that fire burning bright. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you soon. This podcast was produced by