The Angela Lansbury Paradigm

Since I was a child, I can remember learning about what a "normal" work life was. You went to the same job in the same building for 35 years. You worked until your late 50s or early 60s, and then you retired to golf or fish. As if flipping a switch, one day you went from "working" to "retired." Generally, work was drudgery, something that greyed your hair and caused your back to sag. Conversely, retirement was carefree, a time to play and to walk with a spring in your step.

Recently, I was struck by a different model for a lifetime of work -- Angela Lansbury. Funny, but she's always been there -- for all of us. She's acted in movies since 1944, and played Elizabeth Taylor older sister in National Velvet. A recent article in The New York Times told of her recent triumph, at age 83, in Blithe Spirit on Broadway. For a moment, a thought flashed through my mind "Wow, still working at 83!" and then I realized that she was working because she loved what she was doing. Her life and her work are intertwined, a double helix of physical and emotional growth.

We often hear of the need to save for retirement -- the grasshopper and the ant fable of toiling away to save bread crumbs for a lengthy retirement of doing little. What if, like Angela Lansbury, we never retired? Not because we can't afford to, but because we can't afford not to?

What activity doesn't feel like work, even when you are laboring physically or mentally? For me, gardening involves a lot of physical exertion and mundane tasks, but it fills me with such a sense of satisfaction. It is work that I can't afford not to do.

So, what if we shifted the way we think about work and retirement? What if working becomes about controlling the what, when, how, and with whom? And maybe as we age, we work fewer hours, but we pursue a variety of interests we've cultivated over a lifetime.

What if we, like Angela Lansbury, we are always looking for that next opportunity to whirl on stage in a turban?

Tackling Burnout

Here is a link to a great article about burnout on the job. This is a topic I encounter often, and the article addresses both the symptoms of burnout and possible action steps to cope with it.

The Fallacy of Scarcity

Money is on everyone's mind these days. As Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey sang in Cabaret -- "Money Makes the World Go Around." So, money may make the world go around, but does it make your life go around?
We all need money to support our needs and our wants. When we shift our perspective to one in which money (or the lack of money) is the litmus test by which all wants are judged, we get into trouble. For example, when a spouse loses a job or our overtime disappears -- it is as if our sense of opportunity closes up overnight, like a morning glory on a chilly spring evening.


When we start to see the world from a point-of-view of scarcity, or that there is only a finite amount of good "stuff" out there and so we need to conserve or horde what we have, it is my belief that we close up like that morning glory. We often strive to hold on to what we have, be it a relationship or a job we've outgrown, even if it no longer fulfills us. We also start to see others as competition, and often feel envious of what others have that we do not.


In the eloquent words of Stephen Covey, “People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me. The more principle-centered we become, the more we develop an abundance mentality, the more we are genuinely happy for the successes, well-being, achievements, recognition, and good fortune of other people. We believe their success adds to...rather than detracts from...our lives.”


What if, instead, we lived from this place of abundance, where there was more than enough love and economic prosperity to go around? When turning our eyes to the role that money plays in our life, we see not deprivation, but the opportunity to grow, invest, and use our creativity? What if we invest time and a bit of money in exploring a long forgotten passion, or finishing up that degree we were a few credits short of receiving?


You can try an exercise to practice using this abundance perspective: Start by making a list of all of the interests or activities that you're curious about pursuing -- anything that has ever sparked your interest. Now, select at least one thing that has always sparked your interest, and costs under $100 (or perhaps costs nothing at all!). Now, start enjoying that activity TODAY! As you pursue the activity, reflect on what engaging in this activity brings into your life. How does it open up possibility in your life?


I wish that you may live in abundance.