#440 Reflections at 50: What I've Learned Along The Way
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Welcome back, america, to sound retirement radio, where we bring you concepts, ideas and strategies designed to help you achieve clarity, confidence and freedom as you prepare for and transitions of retirement. And now here is your host, Jason Parker.

America, welcome to another round of sound and retirement radio. So glad to have you tune into this episode. Today is my birthday, and for the last couple of weeks have been writing down reflections when i've learned a long way this journey to age fifty.

And so today i'm going to share with you some of those things. But as always, let's get things started right by renewing our mind. And i've got diverse here, force from first, that alone.

Ans, five, sixteen, eighteen. Rejoice, always pray, continually give thanks in all circumstances. For this is god's well, for you and cris jesus, they say fifty is the new forty, except for your knees.

They didn't get the memo at fifty years. Secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either. Well, welcome to fifty, where every time you bend down, you ask yourself, is there anything else I need while i'm down here? Turn in fifty.

Turn in fifty means you've reach that magical age where late night is anything past eight thirty pm. And waking up before I am not just a given. I can't believe i've actually hit the big vivo, and I was pretty sure that my wife would have taken me out long before I made IT this far bit.

Not only am I still here, but in a few months we will be celebrating twenty eight years of marriage. To mark this milestone birthday. I decided to write a list of things that i've learned up to this point my life, and i'm right in as if I were speaking to my kids before I share what i've learned.

Let me be clear. Very few of these insights are unique to me. These are simply the truths I find myself believing and sharing with those around me. I don't have life all figured out, nor do I want to sound like I don't make mistakes.

In fact, if there's one thing I know for certain, it's that I have a lot more to learn, and I often learn the best through my mistakes. So I fully expect to make plenty more in the years ahead. So with that intro, let's get to a communicating with sarcasm is rarely funny and not an effective means of communicating fear.

An opportunity. Feel the same. You were born on purpose for a purpose. God has a plan for your life.

The parade of principal says that eighty percent of the outcomes are the result of twenty percent of the causes. I found this to be true with relationships. A few people on my life are connectors.

My dad, my wife and my friend and mentor ordee, all the best parts of life are a result of relationships. When you identify the connectors in your life, those responsible for most of the relationships protect them, cherish them, spend time with them. They are the well spring of life.

The formula for success in business is easy, help as many people get what they want, and you'll get everything you want. vision. How do you envision the future where there is no vision that people will perish? Sin will take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay in, cost you more than you wanted to pay.

Life is Better when you get two versus have to, and you get to choose if you get to or have to do something, sentence goals to take your mind, then your heart, then your family, then your career. And ultimately, he wants to get you all alone and isolated so he can try to take your life. Worry is a waste of imagination.

No matter how much you jog, you can't out run a bunch of Donald. T healthy is both diet and exercise. See, can you will find, be careful what you look for.

You might find IT seek skepticism and find IT seek belief and you'll find IT. It's best to seek first the kingdom of god. We are all in or connected when you understand this.

IT is when the great commandment of love god with all of your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbors yourself really makes sense. To stop a bad habit, you need to replace IT with a new good habit. Depression can be the result of focusing on self.

The cure is to serve people. The lord is good, first promises, his love is never ending. His mercy and forgiveness are always available.

No matter what you've done, his joy is ours. When we repent, it's Better to follow gies us than to lead men. The richness of life has been in relationships with people.

All the best things come from relationships. The moment I really understood how inner connected we are is when my children were born. Everything we do impacts the world.

Our kids won, heard. And this must be y. Jesus said, the greatest commandment is to love god with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbors yourself.

And I think that there's an order of Operations in the commandment. If you don't start by loving god and you just skip to love in your neighbor, you can't really know what love is. A major difference between those who becomes successful versus those who remain unsuccessful as how they see their own story.

Either you believe that life happened to you and use that as an excuse to be stuck, or you believe that life is happening for you. Our struggle makes a stronger. Just don't quit.

I was watching the olympics when an ice skater fell. Everyone in the room gasped. They felt bad for her.

And that is the moment that I realized the world is for us. They want to see us win. And when we fall, they cheer.

When we stand back up and try again, just keep going. Don't quit. We're all cheering for you. When you find yourself starting to worry, realized that your thoughts have drafted too far into the future.

I like to imagine that I have a rope and last of my thoughts and bring them back to today. Do not worry about tomorrow. IT has enough trouble, the tone, our lives in the future.

The best defence I found to protect my mind is to memory, scripture. IT becomes my meditation, my anthem, my breath, my rest. God is a loving father who wants the best for you.

He loves you so much that he gave us, us, one and only son, to die with arms stretched out, so that when we ask dad, how much do you love me, he shows us, his son, with arms stretched out and he says this much. So don't forget, poor people see the reason things won't work. They are experts in finding everything that can go wrong.

They like to start the sentence with. The problem is, I know the language of the poor because I spoke IT for far too long. Wealthy people look for how to make IT work.

They see chAllenges as opportunities. I ve been both choose words wisely, don't sweat the small stuff, stay focused on the majors, not the miners. No matter how much money I make, it's always been hard for me to give some of IT away.

But when I do give IT away, IT allows me to see how god is working. He is faithful. But why is this so hard for me to be faithful? Before getting frustrated to with people try to ask them their story, a little perspective can change how we feel about others.

I don't run because I have to. I run because I get to vacations. All seem too expensive at the time that you're booking them, but afterwards I can never remember the cost, but I charisse the memories in the photos.

Be more concerned with what god thinks of you than what people think about you. It's good to keep a journal of all the good things in life. It's especially important to write down the things you love about the people in your life.

IT will change your heart, and someday you will be all that they have to remember about you think is greater than memory. Choose to keep a record of what's right. Dollars or make believe they won't survive a thousand years from now.

Don't be the person with all the answers. Be the person who ask a Better question. Ask Better questions.

Listen more. Your mistakes don't disqualify you. As long you learn from them, they will empower you, they will prepare you.

We become what we think about. Thoughts are like seeds that we planted in the garden. If we fill our minds with good thoughts, we will produce good crops.

If we fill our minds with negativity, we will produce a negative life. Be careful what you think about. Take every thought captive.

Don't allow others to fill your thoughts with anything that is not life giving. We find what we're looking for. Seek, and you will find.

So if we seek god, we'll find him. If we seek disbelief, skepticism and cynicism, we'll find IT seek. And you'll find when you wear sung glasses that have a purple tent, everything looks purple.

Take off one set of glasses and put on a different color and everything looks different. Be careful which glasses you look through. Put on a new set of glasses, see things from a new perspective, choose your world view wisely.

Running keeps me healthy. When I feel I am getting a cold or an illness coming on, I run and I swear that the fresh air, increased blood flow and dorf ins kick in my immune system. K kicks into gear and I don't get sick, and I think it's because of my running.

Look for the best and others. And when you see IT, be sure to let them know. Encouragement builds people. Expectations about others, takes our contentment. Encourage, don't expect.

If you could choose only one, which would you be honorable or happy? You can have both, but only if you get the order of Operations right. Money is make belief, which is easy to say when you have some, when you don't have IT, it's almost as important as oxygen.

The greater your assignment, the greater the resistance, the greater your mission, the greater the attacks, the greater your influence, the bigger the target on your back. Pray for our leaders. There is a chasm between the man you are and the man you are born to be, and jesus is the bridge.

A mentor is the fastest path to success. Find someone who has what you want. Do what they do when you'll get what they've got.

Been a masterminded small group. There is energy, creativity, camera tary count, ability, encouragement. We're two or more gathered my name.

I am there. God loves community. How do I define success? Well done. Good and faithful. Servant, ask who, not how the bigger man apologizes first becomes successful, not for the things that you can have, but for the person you'll need to become. Debt is so easy to accumulate and so incredibly hard to pay off.

Everything you need to know about how to live a good life can be found in the bible. The best things in life are not easy, but they're worth IT. Don't ask for life to be easier.

Ask that you can be stronger. Don't ask the life was easier. Ask that you can be Better.

Actions have consequences. Throw a rock into upon and see the ripple effect. It's hard to see all the ripples, all the consequences.

All things are created twice, first of mental creation than a physical that all starts with thought. If you look good, you are good. All men will experience pain, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. t. The pain of discipline ways announce, and the pap ann of regret ways.

The time .

managing investments is easy. Managing emotions is hard. Sometimes it's Better to be quiet than right.

Forgiveness from god is instant as soon as we can fessor repent. But healing begins when we can fess to another person. The light is greater than the darkness.

There is a level of intimacy in love that most people on't never know, because IT is born out of commitment. Be a good finder. Make your your mission to look for the best and others.

The best, given that we have ever done, was drug to a person in need. And IT was anonymous. Drugs, alcohol, smoking in pornography, offer short term game in long term pain, their destructive and should be avoided at all costs.

Don't play around with them, not even in moderation. They have the power to ruin your life and destroy your relationships. Being married to rebeca has been the greatest joy of my life.

All the truly best relationships, all stamp from this one relationship. One day I was driving home with dean, and IT was raining. In my mind, I was irritated with more rain.

I was focused on the rain hitting in the wind. Child, then dean said, look how Green those trees are. How can we both look out the same window and see something different? Whatever we've focus on is where our our life goes.

Hiking in the whole rainforest. I saw a nurse log for the first time, and IT made me think about living and how, even in death, we support the next generation with income. You have two options.

Number one, at the beginning of every month, you get to tell you where it's gonna or a number two, at the end of every month, you're going to ask where at all went. And until you learn number one, you will never have enough. I have a great family and friends, and I love you so much.

You really make my life awesome. The earth is travelling through space as sixty seven thousand miles per hour around the sun. In fifty years i've traveled approximate twenty nine billion miles.

I've lived eighteen thousand two hundred and sixty two days. And if average life expectancy is seventy six, I have approximate nine thousand four hundred and ninety six days remaining. Nine thousand four hundred and ninety six penis is ninety four dollars and ninety six cents.

And i've been asking the people close to me, my friends and family, what's the most important thing that they've learned in their life. Here are a couple of them. Don't sort the small stuff.

relationships. It's not about me. Trust god, you'll provide people .

suck and take .

IT all in before making a judgement. Relationships, hard work, works, transcend beyond stuff. God is sovereign.

Take time to process everything. Respond based on my values and the significance of each issue. I wasted too much of my life focusing on minor, trivial things.

Relationships matter. If there's friction between me and others, I want to focus on the relationship, not the issue. Life is meant to be done with other people. I look forward to update in this list when I get to sixty. Hopefully, I have a lot more things to share with.

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