My apologies for the prior email without content. I hope you enjoy this newsletter and meditation.

I started coaching 8–10-year-old girls as part of Girls On The Run (GOTR). Not having much experience with this age group, I was a bit nervous and excited. GOTR focuses on providing young females with life skills to become their best selves, in their thoughts, behaviors, and actions.

By the end of the first week, I realized that I was judging the girls because they were not listening. They were doing their own thing, and not following ‘the rules’. I was judging them based on how I was taught to behave at that age.

When the girls were supposed to run for 15 minutes, several of the girls put on their heavy backpacks to run. When I asked why they were not running, they said the pack was too heavy, so they were only going to walk.

Then I started to think about the goal of GOTR. The goal is to provide girls with a safe space to figure out who they are and how they want to live their life. They receive an opportunity to responsible for making many of the decisions. We can offer activities and support along with encouragement, yet we are not dictating yet providing structure, listening, and mentoring to help the girls find their path.

As I reflected on this insight, I also realized that as I talk to more people about their retirement many of them think of this phase as a time to relax, to stop doing, or to veg out because this is how their parents spent their retirement.

I hear - 'this is what/how you are ‘supposed to live.’ 

I challenge them to visualize and journal about their retirement using the following prompts.

• Find a play to sit that makes you feel safe.
• Visualize your life as if you were in total control of your schedule. What do you see? How does it feel?
• Visualize your life without a boss or employer telling you what to do or when to show up. What do you notice? What activities, people, space, etc. calls to you?
• Visualize your life without family or close friends (you will add them back in later). How are you living? What does your life look like?
• Visualize you living a productive, enriched retirement. What does this look like? How is it different from how you are living now? Include as many details as possible.
• Visualize your retirement with your family, close friends, feeling valued, worthwhile, and enriched every single day. What do you notice? How is this different from how you live now?

Just like giving GOTR girls the space to explore how they want to show up in this world, you have the permission to decide how you want to show up in your retirement!

Want to add your thoughts or have questions, reach out I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Sandy