JJ 4# -It’s Never Too Late

RJ Walters

I want to let you in on one of my dark secrets I have learned in life and that is, I waited way too long before I sought, or even realized, what a joyous journey could be like. Some people, and I am totally envious of them, figure it out much earlier than I did.

I went through much of my life afraid of change. Out of college, I thought I had a good job that provided me with the security I thought I needed. But in reality that was a cop out. While I didn’t hate my job I really didn’t get much pleasure or even satisfaction from it. It would be over twenty years into my thirty year corporate journey until I finally did things I really enjoyed doing. Even the change that caused this joyfulness to happen was really forced on me due to circumstances of my going deaf.

Due to my Aspie traits, I just didn’t have the understanding, or maybe it was just courage to manage much of a social life. A few dates came and went, but for the most part my single life was just that, single. I was just too awkward in one-on-one communications to hold onto many lasting friends.

It was not until I retired from the corporate world at the age of fifty-four that the idea of joy captured me, or maybe it was more like, “now what do I do?”panic. I, like so many others based my life on my work-world and when that was gone, I was numb to the possibilities without that label.

Eventually, it dawned on me that I could do just about anything I wanted. My cautious but boring life before allowed me to save enough and that along with my pension and social security freed me from having to choose something just to make money.

To close this post off, it is never too late to go on new adventures that make your life joyful. Yeah, I had a lot of missed opportunities in earlier stages of my life, but I believe I am finally finding the joy that I should have sought much earlier. And now that I have it, I intend to hold on to it!

It’s Never Too Late To Seek A Joyous Journey.

Giving Up Social Media?

RJ Walters

No, I am not one of those old people who is against everything invented in the last 20 years. Nor am I a person who spends the typical 2 hours a day clicking through my social media accounts. I am a user but only to a very limited degree. But, maybe even that is going to change.

I certainly understand the importance of having instant communications between a diversity of people across the world. They say Facebook has brought people together. It has billions of users so that must be the case.

My problem with social media is that there is so much bilge clogging up the system to make it extremely difficult to uncover its good side. Too many people ranting about this or that. Too many depressed people because they don’t have high enough “friends” counts.

I also see where many psychologists and such say social media is responsible for much of the epidemic of loneliness, especially among the younger generations. Too many young people spend so much time interacting with social media and rarely actually talk with other people. Let’s face it social Media is probably doing more harm than good in these recent years. It has sadly become an addiction to far too many of us.

I see there are groups now that want to just shut down Facebook, rather than try to break that massive monopoly up. I know every generation has its own problems that the older folks say is ruining it. But, is that more a reality now than it has been in the past?

Getting back to the personal level, I haven’t looked at any of my social media accounts in almost a month. I get a few notification in my mail feeds but they are quickly deleted. I am seriously considering deleting my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. I think my life would be more joyful without them.

Let me know what you think about removing ourselves from the social media world?

JJ#3 – The Secret To It All

RJ Walters

I know most writers save their ultimate secrets until the end of the story. But, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I am different. I am going to give you the ultimate secret to life right now. 😉

Always Open Your Mind To Different Possibilities.

To me, being closed minded is the ultimate in stupidity. Yes, I realize that many of us are just too fearful to think there might be another way to live our lives. For some, it just takes a giant leap to actually make changes. I could say those people are in a rut, but I really think it comes down to courage to face today and tomorrow with hope instead of despair. That is a very hard thing for some to do.

I don’t care what you might say, none of us has a lock on life! We are all just playing it by ear as each year passed. Mostly we make mistakes, but sometimes we also do something right. We should pay attention to those “right” times to try to learn lessons from them for the challenging event.

Unfortunately, most of us instead concentrate on the stuff we screwed up and that teaches us not to take risks. Risks can result in failure and that is something we want to avoid to a paranoid degree. We learn from our mistakes so as to maybe do it right the next time. We don’t stagnate on an event in our past and live it for the rest of our lives. There are other possibilities that will result in a more joyous life.

When I see men of my generation still living the Vietnam war of more than 50 years ago, I shutter at a wasted life that is stuck in the past. But, it seems we make more guys, and now gals, like this with each of the wars we inevitably get ourselves into. When will we ever learn? Wasted lives due to unnecessary traumatic experiences is a true tragedy of my generation.

When I see so many senior citizens and even those younger think that it is better to try to bring back the past rather than to do something to make America better for tomorrow, I see helplessness. By their inordinate fear of the future they have put a heavy burden on their children and grandchildren to fix what our generation won’t.

The secret I gave you above is similar to one of my ten pillars of life.

Embrace Change

That is the way we move forward as people, communities, and nations. Whether you believe it or not, we are all in this together and we need to look out for each other, instead of considering almost everyone different from our, an enemy.

AR#2 – Frank Lloyd Wright – Westcott

RJ Walters

Alternative Reflection #2 is based on a photo of the Westcott home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is near Columbus Ohio. It was built in 1908. In the 1940s it was converted to apartments. Finally in 2004 it underwent a complete restoration to take it back to the original design.

I give you my “Alternative Reflection” of what it is today.

The Rise of “Mom & Pop” Businesses

RJ Walters

I know one of the ranting points of many folks is how the “mom & pop” business have almost disappeared from America. But according to an article I recently read they are mounting a very striking comeback. Thanks to Amazon!

Several of the items I have purchased recently are obviously from small and medium sized business. Amazon encourages small businesses to engage with them. They are not like brick and mortar stores who have only so much shelf space. Customers don’t have to roam down isle after isle to try to find what they are looking for. Amazon is an ideal place for small businesses.

Of course I realize that Amazon wants their share of the profits for their small business sales but really they are not much different from most brick and mortar business in that regard. According to USA Today, Amazon has helped 1.9 million U.S. based small and medium sized business (SMB) to generate more than $160 billion in sales in 2018. The number of SMBs with more than $1 million in sales grew by 20% last year.

Amazon is indeed good for many small businesses. But that isn’t just some making your stuff, it also include authors who self-published books. They made about $260 million for their prose. Publishing a book used to be an expensive proposition but now with e-books, even I am contemplating becoming a “published author”.

And that is still not all that Amazon offers small business. They are now encouraging entrepreneurs to build, with Amazon’s help, their own package delivery services.

I remember when Jeff Bezos first started Amazon, he impressed me by stating up front that Amazon would not be issuing any dividends. Instead he would be plowing all profits back into the company. He definitely had a LONG term view of what he wants his business to be. His view of the company made me buy some Amazon stock. I wish I had bought much more than I did!

Being a database guy myself, I can appreciate how he built efficiency into his business model. Thanks to his unique database algorithms he managed to do what no one else even envisioned. A big part of his recent profits are providing that structure to other businesses.

I’m pretty sure that an Amazon type business model that will dominate 21st century sales of goods and services. Just like so many other jobs today, you don’t have to be physically located and any particular part of the country to be a successful business anymore.

JJ#2- Joyous Journey Rules

RJ Walters

I am one of the many people who regularly watch NCIS on TV. There are so many NCIS’s now that I guess I need to expand that sentence. I’m talking about the one with Leroy Jethro Gibbs. One of the things I like about him is his rules. I don’t know how many rules he has, but his team seems to know them all.

When I was trying to find a format for this new project of RJsCorner I thought of Jethro and his rules, so I thought I would start my set of rules on having a joyous life in my senior years. 😉

If you have any suggestions on what to add, I am open to them.

In investigating sources for posts, I have come across more than I ever imagined. I think this topic could go on forever (ha). One of the top sources is a guy named Ernie Zelinski. He has written several books on the topic of finding joy in your life. He definitely knows how to enjoy life.

One is entitled

The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked — 21st Century.

Another is

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won’t Get from Your Financial Advisor.

As we go thorough this new series I’m sure you will come to appreciate Ernie as much as I do.

Let’s finish up this boring preparatory work by telling you I am giving each post in this topic a unique number. Since I hope to build up the joyful story one brick at a time, numbering the post will make them easier to refer to them in the future.

Next time I am going to give you the main secret to what I think allows us to accomplish a joyous journey in our lives. I know giving my secret out at the front end of the story is pretty unusual, but since I plan on referring to it many times to reinforce what I will be talking about, it just makes sense.

JJ#1- Joyful??

RJ Walters
Seeking a Joyous Journey Through Our Retirement Years

With this post, I am introducing yet another new special project here on RJsCorner. It is entitled

Seeking a “Joyous Journey” Through Our Retirement Years.

This project will hopefully become a major part of this blog in the coming months. I have also redesigned the header above to reflect a new direction for RJsCorner.

Joyful is often a very misunderstood word, especially in today’s hectic world. Some think that being joyful and being happy are the same thing, but I am finding that couldn’t be further from the truth.

What is joy?  Joy is a state of being, whereas happiness tends to be an externally triggered event. Happiness is based on other people, places, thoughts and events. It’s nice to have moments of happiness, but it is much more fulfilling to be in a self-induced constant state of joy. You see the difference don’t you?

A primary source of a joyful life comes from our attitudes. It is not always about accepting the way things are, but sometimes it is, especially those things we have no control over.   Joyfulness is a state of mind. It is hard to completely wrap your mind around the concept of joy in just a few words or even books. Many people, me included, have sought joy throughout their life and never manage to really find it.

I want to make it clear here that I am not turning RJsCorner into some “feel good” site. My posts on this topic won’t be about citing a bunch of platitudes and buzz words. Instead, it will be about learning to take control of the dark side of life and eventually letting the sunshine fill its place. It will mean we caste off the negative things that presently consume way too much of our time. The degree in which we manage to do that will determine how successful we are at finally achieving a Joyous Life.

Making a joyous life will mean thinking for ourselves and questioning how we got to where we are. Changing your attitude toward life is not fluffy, and that is exactly what I hope to accomplish, at least personally.

It is a challenge, especially for me, to move my mindset from my current state of negative thinking to a more joyous path but I am determined to do just that. Just how it will happen I don’t fully know yet. But the most obvious obstacle is to avoid the stench of politics and other distasteful things that are taking up too much real estate in my personal journey.

I will continue with some of the regular stuff here, that many of you seem to enjoy. That includes of course, “Having My Say” about things, giving you some techie lessons, and of course snippets here and there, and some of my bouts of creativity.

I would really like to hear your thoughts on this new agenda here at RJsCorner.

AR#1 -Alternative Reflections

RJ Walters

Alternative Reflections is a new category for me here at RJsCorner. It is meant to allow my creative side a little more leeway in my life. Most of the posts in this category will be where I take some of my favorite photos and expose them to artistic apps to turn them into “art”. Of course art is in the eye of the beholder, so I will wait for your judgement on whether I am doing a good job.

The first installment is a picture of me taken at a cafe attached to the Westside Market in Cleveland. It was taken last year during our trip to see Punxsutawney  Phil. A full post on that soon. 🙂

An enjoyable breakfast in a small Cleveland cafe.