Lifelong Learning Thursday

Nancy Merz Nordstrom, author of Learning Later, Living Greater: The Secret of Making the Most of Your After 50 Years will share the benefits of Lifelong Learning on Thursdays.

LEARNING LATER, LIVING GREATER:
The Secret for Making the Most of Your After-50 Years.

…a Health Club for Your Mind. Body and Spirit!

So, with all the great examples given last week, how do you find the right opportunity?

There are literally millions of ways to volunteer. But how do you harness them into the right opportunity for you? How do you find the opportunity that fits your lifestyle? Here are some suggestions:

· Look for causes and groups that work with issues about which you feel strongly.

· Make a list of your skills. You can then go right to work with a minimum of training. The skills you’ve learned in your career or at work can be applied for the benefit of others.

· Or, take the opportunity to learn something new through community service.

· Look for opportunities that will help you combine your other goals in life.

· Review your schedule so you don’t over-commit. No one wins if that happens. Take into account your other life commitments.

· Look at opportunities you can take on as a team with your spouse.

· “Virtual volunteer” if you love working on a computer. There are more than 100 organizations that use on-line volunteers.

· Think about new and different venues where volunteers might be useful.

· Find out how much time is required, how much, if any, of your own funds will be used and if expenses are reimbursed.

What are some of the benefits of meaningful community service?

There are multiple, life-enriching benefits to be gained from community service. Here are just a few.

· Community service produces what is called the “halo effect.” By helping out you not only help make the world a better place, but also enrich your own life too.

· Community service gives you the opportunity to fulfill your dreams. Perhaps our career paths took us in a different direction than that which we secretly dream about. So instead of finding a project that is a continuation of that career, find one that fulfills the “inner you.” Engage in that fantasy!

· Most people can physically, mentally and emotionally benefit from a moderate amount of service work.

· Being a volunteer enhances the control you feel over your own life.

· A measure of status and identity is conferred by contributing and working in a volunteer capacity.

· You feel fulfilled with a new sense of purpose.

· Community service boosts character, builds strong minds that can reason, think critically, negotiate and solve problems.

· You will be intellectually challenged.

· Giving back promises greater meaning, stimulation and the chance to make a difference in others’ lives.

· People who have found a valued role in life live longer.

· You develop a new perspective on life making material things less important.

· You will come away feeling valued and needed.

· You make new contacts, which might lead to a second career, full-time or part-time.

· Social interaction increases as you meet new people.

· Finally, community service enables you to leave a legacy. Erik Erikson’s idea that “we are what survives of us,” speaks to how we can leave society a better place than how we found it. And, that’s what we’ll be remembered for!

THURSDAY’S THOUGHT…

Dr. Dorothy I. Height, president and CEO of the NCNW says, Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop. And, growing and developing, even into later age, is what lifelong learning is all about.

For more information on Learning Later, Living Greater visit http://www.learninglater.com/ You can purchase Learning Later, Living Greater at http://www.amazon.com/

Till Next Time…