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Jamie Lee Mcfadden

www.jlmcfadden.com

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What are ways that we can improve our own future?

It so hard in our day to day lives to remember that we have to save for our future. There is going to be a day that comes that we can not work any longer. Looking at this video by Danial Goldstein http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goldstein_the_battle_between_your_present_and_future_self.html don't you believe it would be better to save more and enjoy our golden years? I am trying to put myself in the mind set to save more now and travel a lot during my golden years.

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Topics: Retirement aging responsibility
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  • Pieter Van Niekerk

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    Jan 2 2012: I fully subscribe to saving as a fundamental life discipline. The trick is to not talk but to do, starting small and building momentum. If you are older already, your intervention may have to be mor radical. However there are other variables that will make your older self smile, perhaps more than money. It is the savings you make in time (from sacrificing non productive activities) and reinvesting it in making memories that become the basis for self worth and enjoyment in old age. The point is travel when you can whilst you can, perhaps not 3 times a year but once annually, having saved for that privilege in advance.

  • Veronica Fitzhugh

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    Dec 30 2011: I don't really consider people entirely negative or positive. People seem to be a blend of energies. And, I don't tend to think along the lines of duality. People think black or white or gray, I think hot pink. :)
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    Theodore A. Hoppe 200+

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    Dec 30 2011: Resisting temptation, or delaying gratification, begins at an early age and some are better than others at it. Witness the "marshmallow experiment," research conducted at Stanford University. Four-year-olds were given a treat. "They can have one marshmallow now. But if they wait until the experimenter comes back, they can have two. Of course it pays, if you like marshmallows, to wait. What happens is two-thirds of the kids give in to temptation." They cannot wait, but one-third did wait.
    Joachim de Posda repeated this experiment in his native country with amusing results:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_

    Want to improve your future, lets start by teaching children this lesson like de Posada suggests.
    They are OUR future.

  • Veronica Fitzhugh

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    Dec 29 2011: One of the ways, we can connect with our older selves and improve our future is to connect with older people such as adopting a grandparent or volunteering at assisted living homes.

    We no longer need commitment devices when we streamline our lives to things that have high value in our present and future.

    We improve our futures when we adopt the sustainability viewpoint of some Native Americans by thinking past our old age into 7 generations ahead.

    And, the recognition of future goals and dreams through construction of vision boards is also helpful.

  • Rhona Pavis 50+

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    Dec 28 2011: We can increase the quantity of positive words that we use and decrease the quantity of negative words that we use. We can increase the quantity of positive acts we perform. We can screen negative people out of our lives and screen positive people into our lives. We can increase our expressions of truth, love and joy.

    • Veronica Fitzhugh

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      Dec 29 2011: Thank you for your comment! What is considered a negative person?

      • Rhona Pavis 50+

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        Dec 30 2011: Someone who has negative intent in his or her mind and heart when she or he commits an act. Someone who does negative things that have negative impacts on people. Someone who uses a lot of negative words. Someone who looks at neutral reality and tends to see/hear/perceive/interpret neutral or positive reality as negative. I wonder what you would consider a negative person to be.
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    Max Song 20+

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    Dec 26 2011: I think the surest way to build a secure future begins with the realization that security is illusory. More and more, the institutions (jobs, corporations, welfare) we have taken for granted are showing their unsteady foundations. There is only one security, that lies in yourself. Your health, your connections and your ability to catalyze change are the new currencies we must invest in.

    I've never been one for long delayed gratification. As much as the marshmellow study tell us the ability to forgo immediate pleasures is advantageous to future success, I think that it is a little sad to treat your current employment as just a mechanism of trading time for future finances. You live but once, and you are now as young as you will ever be. Instead, what if we did what we really loved, got paid for it, up until the very end? I dont think I will ever stop working and enter "retirement," because my work will be my life's purpose- my hobby- what I do in my "off" time as well as "on" time.
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      Jamie Barnes

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      Dec 26 2011: Couldnt agree more about investing in a career that is a hobby as much as it is a means.

      To me, the future requires a Paradigm Shift in regards to our responsibility to the investment in humanity's sake.That is the harnessing and usefull and meaningfull employment of technology, education, innovation, environmental stewardship, ingenuity, leadership and much much more self awareness about our human-to-environment impacts and global, non material welfare.In other words, re-assessment about social ranks..........

      Less lawyers, more Scientists. More Medical Researchers, less Celebrities.More Specialists, Less tycoons. More Engineers, less Bankers.More Pioneers, less Politicians...Im sure the list goes on.

      We live in a world that is run by doers, not thinkers. Perhaps its time the 'doers' need to start doing a little more thinking, and the thinkers, need to start doing a little more 'doing'.

      • Veronica Fitzhugh

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        Dec 29 2011: I like what you share. I hope for a world of human beings and human doings. :)

    • Filip Balyu

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      Dec 26 2011: In fact, Max, when you live like you suggest, what drops away is the urgency of gratification, because you don't need it to fill the emptiness created by postponing gratification in the first place, isn't it?
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      Jamie Lee Mcfadden

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      Dec 26 2011: Most people seem to forget that we only have one life and it is a very short one.
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      Colleen Steen 500+

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      Dec 30 2011: Max, Jamie, Veronica, Filip and Jamie Lee,
      I LOVE this thread of thought/feeling you have going here!!!
      I firmly believe Max, that " health, your connections and your ability to catalyze change are the new currencies we must invest in". These are treasures that last a lifetime:>)

      I also agree Max, that "it is a little sad to treat your current employment as just a mechanism of trading time for future finances". I believe that every moment is an opportunity to learn, grow and evolve, so I learned a long time ago to do what I love and/or love what I do:>)

      I totally agree Jamie Barnes that this requires a " Paradigm Shift.....That is the harnessing, usefull and meaningfull employment of technology, education, innovation, environmental stewardship, ingenuity, leadership and much much more self awareness about our human-to-environment impacts and global, non material welfare.In other words, re-assessment about social ranks..........". Very well said! In other words BALANCE:>)

      YES...YES...YES Filip!!! "When you live like you suggest, what drops away is the urgency of gratification because you don't need it to fill the emptiness ..." Worrying about if we are "gratified" in the moment, or have "enough" in the moment uses up a lot of energy. When we simply "live" in the moment, that is the gratification in and of itself....in my humble opinion. "Be" what we want to "see".

      Are you sure we have only one life?

  • Filip Balyu

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    Dec 25 2011: Aim for excellence or perfection in the sense of Antoine de Saint-Exupery: "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." In that way you make space for the future to unfold itself in the present to its best potential. Do this in every situation, with everything you do, and every moment of your life will be at its best. No moment needing a second to finish what was incomplete in the previous one. In this way every moment is a golden one. It gives you that which no money or time can buy. It gives you that which no fleeting satisfaction can give you. So there is no need to sacrifice your present to improve your future. If this is the focus of your life, then making decisions as to the need to earn or save money will be not such a torment, because your satisfaction in life does not depend on it. And when there is no projection as to how your future should look like or not, you are naturally open to the common good of humanity, prepared to bring about a golden society which is not based on conflicting projections of the future.
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