Anti-Aging Personal Satisfaction Action Plan
A personal satisfaction plan is going to be different depending on who you are and what it is that you want out of life. Some people want something simple; others want something more elaborate.
But whatever it is that you want, put it into motion right now to make it come true. After all, you only have one life and you want to make sure that you live it to the fullest with no regrets.
In Your 30s and Younger
When you’re in your 30s, you’re well on your way to setting the stage for how your life is going to be in the future. It’s usually at this time in your life that you’re settling into your relationships and your career.
It’s also at this stage in life, especially toward the middle and end of the 30s, that most people take stock of their lives and realize with a shock that deep down, they’re not truly happy.
Unfortunately, far too often what happens is that these people keep on thinking that it’s too late to chart another course now. And if you have years of education behind you that has led you a certain direction, then making a change can seem even more insurmountable.
But you need to stop looking at the problems associated with changing your life so that you’re satisfied with it. You deserve to be happy whatever it takes to put that into motion.
Plus, it’s better to make any big changes now so that you can have the future that you want to have. The number one area where most people discover that they’re not really finding personal satisfaction is with their career.
If you think about it, though, when most people embark on a career path, it begins in college. They make a choice about what they want to do for the rest of their lives as a career when they’re only 18 or so years old.
That’s a really young age to be presented with having to make a choice that’s going to determine the outcome of your life. It could be that when you were that young, you always knew what you wanted to be but now, you’re not so sure.
That’s because time and age change your perspective in life. What was important at 18, doesn’t seem to matter nearly so much once you hit your 30s. And you shouldn’t stick with a career plan if you’re not happy just because you thought you would be years ago.
People change and it’s okay. Some people are reluctant to let go of a certain path in life because they’re afraid. They’re afraid of what people are going to think of them if they make a change.
They don’t want to disappoint people who rooted for them or who helped them get where they are now. They don’t want to seemingly “throw away” a college education that led to the point where they are with the career that they have.
These fears hold many people and they stay stuck in life that they’re living for someone else’s satisfaction. The people that loved and rooted for you at 18 will still love and root for you in your 30s and if they don’t, then it’s not your problem.
Don’t make someone’s approval contingent on you being happy for the rest of your life. If you look at your career and you’re not happy, then change it. There are lawyers making six figures a year who walked away from that to become writers and authors, doctors who gave up the profession to become motivational speakers.
Regardless of what your career is or how long or how much money it took you to get there, if you’re not happy, then it will affect your health in the long run. Unhappy people simply don’t live as long as people who are happy do.
Choose your own personal satisfaction over what you feel you “should” do. If you decide to change your career path, what you want to do first don’t just walk in the door of the office and announce that you’re done unless you have enough of an emergency fund to pay your bills.
Take the time while you’re still holding onto your current job to set up your new direction in life so that financial issues don’t weigh on you. Take stock of your spending habits now to see if there’s anything you can cut so that you can save as much money as possible.
Make sure that you have at least 3 months’ worth of your salary put back to pay the bills while you’re working on the goals that help you make the transition. Make sure that you do whatever research is needed to prepare you for the change in direction you’re going to take with your career.
For some people, that might mean that you have to pick up some new skills or have to take some courses to learn a new career. Whatever you can do now to make the transition as smooth as possible will benefit you in the future.
In Your 40s
When you enter into your 40s, there are usually a lot of life changes going on. You might have kids who are going off to college and leaving you with an empty nest for the first time in decades.
You might be experiencing the emotions associated with midlife crisis and you just don’t feel that satisfied with your life. Since personal satisfaction is one of the best ways to help prevent certain types of aging, you’ll want to figure out what it is that you’re not happy about and change it.
Life is too short to simply endure something you can change or remove. One of the things that many people in their 40s start looking at for personal satisfaction is the desire to run their own business.
That’s easier than ever before now that there’s such an abundance of businesses that you can start right from your own home. These businesses can be started for almost next to nothing cost-wise and can be run online.
You can have a business up and running in as little as a few hours. Plus, you can start an online business without having to learn a lot of new skills because you can use what you already know.
You can tap into the expertise you’ve already picked up in life and turn that into a side business. For example, by the time they’ve reached their 40s, most people are pretty savvy about finances.
You can easily write up a short eBook about managing money and offer it online to others. Or, if you have expertise in a certain area such as handling taxes, you can write up a book on tax tips that can save people money and offer that for sale.
Whatever it is that you know can be leveraged into a side business and many of these businesses can easily turn around and make enough money so that you’re able to cut back hours at your job.
One of the easiest ways to start making money online with a side business is to set up your own website. There are many free tutorials that can walk you through it step by step once you buy your domain name.
On your website, you can showcase what it is you have for sale. You can also set up a blog on your website where you talk about your expertise and get to know your audience and you can also have photos of what it is you want to sell.
You can also become an Amazon associate to promote and sell products for the company. Once you put the links to the products up on your site and people click on the link, then go buy the product, you’ll earn a commission based on what it is that the consumer purchases.
If you’re good at making craft items, then you can set up a shop on a site like Etsy. This gives you an online store to market your wares. This site is widely known for a variety of handcrafted items.
You can find everything from clothing to jewelry to woodworking and more. If you have the ability to write and copyedit, you can offer your skills to businesses or authors who are looking for professionals to polish their work.
There’s almost no limit to what kind of business you can start online. All you need is the desire to have a business and then set up your online presence.
In Your 50s
Everyone has something that they’re passionate about. It’s a great thing when that passion is directly tied in to the life’s work that a person does, but sadly, this isn’t usually the case.
Most people have a career, then they have that separate thing that they’re passionate about. This is why most people in their fifties have a hobby that they look forward to engaging in the second they get off work.
They love doing it and it brings them enjoyment and a sense of feeling fulfilled. There are many hobbies just waiting to be discovered that will bring you a lot of personal satisfaction.
Studies have shown that people who have hobbies they enjoy live longer too because it helps them find freedom from stress. Look at what it is that you find enjoyment in. Some people find happiness by tapping into their creative side.
If you’re into creative designing, there are many different choices you can make. You can design with paints or sketch. You can create pottery or sculpt intricate designs. You can make household furniture or objects of art.
You can create jewelry or clothing. Whatever it is that you enjoy doing will help you to find personal satisfaction and as an added thrill, some people have even turned a hobby they love into a profitable side business.
Some people enjoy cooking or baking. You can use this hobby to take gourmet cooking classes or courses like cake decorating and make beautiful creations for your family to enjoy or as specialty cakes for other families.
If you prefer to have a hobby that’s more physically active, then you can take up something like dancing. Many people in their fifties have always wanted to learn how to dance and it’s never too late.
You can learn ballroom dancing or line dancing. You can learn tap dancing or modern dance. Or you can learn swing dancing. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can even learn belly dancing.
The trick to finding a hobby that you want to do. You can uncover this by looking at what it is you already enjoy. If you already enjoy cooking or gardening or dancing, then those are good signs that you would enjoy doing them as a hobby.
In Your Senior Years
One of the things most people say that they want to do with their lives when they retire is travel. But sadly, it remains a dream because they never actually get around to doing it.
There are always different reasons why they believe it doesn’t work out. It’s never the right time, or there might not be enough money or there’s no one to travel with. If you want to travel and it’s something that you know will give you personal satisfaction, then you simply need to make it happen.
It really is easier than it looks. You can travel at any time of the year in your senior years. At this stage in life, most of the responsibilities of setting up your financial future have already been done.
Most senior citizens aren’t responsible for children so there’s no one to worry about setting up childcare for. You can just go. If you’re worried about the cost of traveling, believe it or not, it’s actually cheaper to travel now than it ever has been before.
Everything from travel fare to accommodations can be found cheap. Plus, many airlines and other modes of travel offer discounts to seniors. If you live on a limited budget like some senior citizens do, one of the best ways that you can travel and see different places of the world is by offering to house sit.
This usually gives you free room and board in exchange for simply staying in the home and it leaves you free to play tourist in the city you’re staying in. Some college dorms will rent a dorm room for a night or two for much less than the cost of a hotel room.
If you’re still in good health and you’ve always wanted to see the world, you can take on a temporary part time job on a cruise line aboard a ship. There are hundreds of jobs available on a cruise ship in the entertainment, gifts, casino or salon departments to name a few.
You can get hired on and the travel is free and most cruise lines have an employee meal plan. You would get to earn a paycheck as you travel the world. You can also arrange to be a tour guide for various companies.
Most of these companies will pay for your travel to wonderful cities like Rome. You could visit Paris or other countries on someone else’s dime. If the idea of traveling alone isn’t your thing, there are groups of senior citizens that you can join to travel with. Just look up senior citizen travel groups or clubs in your area.
Turning back the clock or freezing it in place is easier than most people believe. Don’t let the fine lines or thoughts of what year it is get you down. Make a plan of action to improve every aspect of your life that contributes to the aging process and then implement it.
Whether you’re in your teens, twenties, middle aged or in your twilight years - you’re never too young or too old to work on anti-aging. Don’t do it because you have to. Do it because you believe you deserve the best life you can live.