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Originally posted at: Rachel Fuda’s Leopard Print Confessional Look

With the above parting admonition, Steve Jobs closed his commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. No matter your age, there is a message in this for each of us. Jobs’ speech had three main points.

1. Dots will somehow connect in your future.
2. Find what you love.
3. Death is the destination we all share.

Dots Will Somehow Connect in Your Future

You probably know that Jobs dropped out of college. He reasoned that he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, he didn’t see how college would play a role, and he didn’t want to spend his parents’ money foolishly. He trusted that it would all work out and, of course, his curiosity and intuition turned him into a successful entrepreneur.

I am nowhere near as successful as Steve Jobs, but I have made some drastic changes in my career that also supported my growth. My first job out of college was as a pricing analyst with Caterpillar Tractor Company. That was not the career I had in mind, but it served a purpose – it brought in a paycheck. I really wanted to be a banker.

As an economics major, my favorite course was Money and Banking. The role of the Federal Reserve in managing the money supply, their methods, and the daily ramifications in the financial markets intrigued me. They still do! After two years with Caterpillar (and a supervisor who thought women did not belong in the work force), I decided to leave and pursue my dream.

It happened that one of the banks I talked to had a position available in the trust department. The position was in investment trading, and that role began my love affair with investments. It also dropped my salary by almost half! I never regretted that move and through the years the financial world rewarded me financially, too.

Much later in my career, I left a company without another job because of human resource expectations that I did not feel were fair or ethical. I was a sales manager at the time, and it was painful for me to say goodbye to the staff I loved and the accomplishments we made. The steps leading to my decision happened quickly, I had no other job, had not started looking for a job, but I knew that this was the correct move for me. I could not continue to function in an unworkable environment.

As I reassessed my future, I kept in touch with my network. A professional acquaintance approached me about an open position in her company. That did not happen right away, however. I had to be patient, which is not one of my strengths. The time I was “forced” to spend in reflection was beneficial to both my personal growth and my career.

In my new role in a large wealth management firm, I once again worked directly with clients face-to-face, and I rediscovered my passion. The knowledge I learned about both exchange-traded funds and leadership from my former position was not lost. In fact, one way or another, I used everything I learned in all my previous financial jobs. The dots connect!

Find What You Love

Every position I held, including the first one at Caterpillar, taught me something that enhanced my life and my career. I went through excellent training programs at two top notch financial companies. I learned the ins and outs of bonds, money market instruments, stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. And I learned about asset and liability management of a bank as a senior officer. My career included roles in investment management, operations, trading, and sales functions. My professional activities taught me leadership skills and gave me opportunities to practice them.

As I mentioned above, I found my passion in working directly with clients to help them solve financial problems, make their lives better, and support their goals. Some of their financial lives were simple and others were complicated. I used many resources from my collection of experiences and training and loved every minute. I especially liked working with and teaching beginners in the world of investments.

When I reached my retirement goal and stopped working one-on-one with clients, I knew there was something left for me to do and COVID gave me that opportunity. I wrote a book for women who are beginning investors. It is called, How to Dress a Naked Portfolio: A Tailored Introduction to Investing for Women. My passion to help others continues in my blogs as well.

Death Is the Destination We All Share

What did Jobs mean by this? He was challenging us to live each day as if it were our last and to be true to ourselves. That especially had meaning for him as he had been diagnosed with cancer, but remember he said this to a group of college graduates.

I am now retired and once again have time for reflection. COVID also gave me time to think about what is important to me. My partner of five years and I discussed our separate priorities and together decided what would be workable for our life together. We are frustrated that some of our plans have not worked out, but we trust that, in time, the dots will connect. In the meantime, we continue to discover what we can live with and without.

Family, friends, spouses/partners, children, and work associates all have expectations that affect us and, at times, weigh heavy. It is sometimes difficult to honor ourselves and deliver a difficult message in a respectful manner. I struggle with setting relationship boundaries and continue to work on that. I expect it will be a project for the rest of my life. In the meantime, I celebrate the dawn of each new day and wonder what I will learn in its course.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What from Steve Jobs’ address hit home to you? Have you found what you love? What was, or is, your journey like? How do you make the most of each day?

Are you or a loved one eager to go on a vacation but find that limited mobility poses a challenge? The desire to explore and create memories knows no age limit, and thankfully, there are tailored vacation options designed specifically for seniors facing mobility constraints.

Vacations for seniors with limited mobility:

1. Sandals Caribbean Vacations – Sandals is dedicated to ensuring accessibility for all guests, offering accommodations in specific room categories designed for individuals with disabilities.
2. The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club – They have implemented a range of features to cater to different accessibility needs. From accessible vanities to adjustable height hand-held shower wands, they prioritize comfort and convenience.
3. Beaches All-Inclusive Resorts – Beaches Resorts in Providenciales and Jamaica’s Negril cater to wheelchair users with strategically placed ramps and wheelchair-accessible lifts throughout the properties.
4. Norwegian Cruise Line—For travelers with special needs, the cruise line’s Accessibility Coordinators, dedicated to ensuring a safe and accessible experience, will contact you after receiving the Accessibility & Medical Questionnaire.
5. Holland America Cruises – The cruise line is committed to providing an exceptional cruising experience for all guests, including those with disabilities, offering various accessible features to enhance the voyage’s relaxation and enjoyment.

Discover how you can go on unforgettable journeys that cater to your unique needs, ensuring a delightful and hassle-free getaway with limited mobility.

What to Look for When Traveling with Limited Mobility

When planning vacations for seniors with limited mobility, it’s crucial to consider various factors to ensure a safe, enjoyable, and comfortable experience.

Accessible Accommodations

Seek accommodations that prioritize accessibility. Look for hotels or resorts with wheelchair ramps, elevators, and rooms equipped with features like grab bars, roll-in showers, and wider doorways.

Destination Accessibility

Choose destinations that are known for their accessibility. Many tourist attractions and cities have taken steps to become more accommodating for individuals with limited mobility. Research the accessibility features of the destination before finalizing your plans.

Transportation Options

Consider the mode of transportation to and within your chosen destination. Ensure that airports, train stations, and public transportation have facilities such as ramps and elevators. If renting a car, inquire about accessible vehicles.

Mobility Equipment Rental

Check if there are reliable options for renting mobility equipment such as wheelchairs, scooters, or walkers at your destination. This can significantly enhance your mobility during the trip without the need to transport bulky equipment.

Accessible Tours and Activities

Look for guided tours and activities specifically designed for individuals with limited mobility. Many attractions offer accessible routes and services, allowing you to fully enjoy the experience without facing barriers.

Medical Facilities

Prioritize destinations with accessible medical facilities. Research the availability of hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies with accessible facilities and medical equipment.

Adaptive Cruises or Tours

Consider cruise lines or tour companies that specialize in trips for seniors with limited mobility. These organizations often provide trained staff, accessible facilities, and tailored itineraries to accommodate varying mobility needs.

Local Support Services

Identify local support services that can assist with transportation, guided tours, or any other specific needs. Having access to reliable support can enhance the overall travel experience.

Review Accessibility Reviews

Check online reviews or forums for feedback from other travelers with limited mobility who have visited the same destination. Personal experiences can provide valuable insights into the accessibility of various attractions and facilities.

Always plan ahead, communicate your needs, and choose destinations that prioritize inclusivity and accessibility.

Vacation Ideas for Seniors with Limited Mobility

Accessible All-Inclusive Resorts for Seniors

Some all-inclusive resorts offer several advantages for seniors with limited mobility, ensuring a more convenient and enjoyable vacation experience. These resorts prioritize accessibility, featuring wheelchair-friendly pathways and accommodations equipped with necessary facilities.

With on-site services and amenities, you can access dining options, entertainment, and activities within the resort complex, minimizing the need for extensive travel. Accessible transportation options, such as shuttles or electric carts, make it easier for you to navigate the resort.

These resorts often offer specialized services, such as mobility assistance, and can include medical facilities for added reassurance.

Sandals Caribbean Vacations

Sandals is dedicated to ensuring accessibility for all guests, offering accommodations in specific room categories designed for individuals with disabilities. At every Sandals resort, a team of experienced staff is committed to meeting your needs, ensuring a relaxing and enjoyable vacation that aligns with the Luxury Included® standard.

Select Sandals resorts feature ramps and lifts for easy accessibility for guests using wheelchairs. Accommodations catering to mobility and dexterity-related disabilities include wider doorways, bathroom rails, lowered light switches and faucets, bathroom benches, and more. Their resorts are well-equipped to provide an ideal Caribbean getaway where you and your loved ones can enjoy the sunshine along with the world-class services and amenities offered by Sandals.

The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club

The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club prioritizes accessibility to ensure a comfortable stay for all guests. Their commitment to inclusivity starts with accessible on-site parking and property elevators for convenient mobility. Service animals are more than welcome, and their van-accessible on-site parking adds an extra layer of convenience.

For ease of movement, they have established accessible routes from public entrances to various areas. The entrance to the on-site pool is accessible, as are the entrances to the business center and fitness center. The main entrance, meeting spaces, and on-site restaurants all adhere to accessibility standards.

They have implemented a range of features to cater to different accessibility needs. From accessible vanities to adjustable height hand-held shower wands, they prioritize comfort and convenience. Safety measures include roll-in showers, bathtub grab rails, and a bathtub seat. Lowered electrical outlets and mobility-accessible rooms ensure a seamless experience.

Beaches All-Inclusive Resorts

Beaches Resorts in Providenciales and Jamaica’s Negril cater to wheelchair users with strategically placed ramps and wheelchair-accessible lifts throughout the properties. While Beaches Ocho Rios is an exception to full wheelchair accessibility, the resort compensates by offering numerous amenities specially designed for wheelchair access.

Beyond wheelchair accessibility, additional accommodations for guests with mobility and dexterity-related disabilities encompass wider doorways, bathroom rails, lowered light switches and faucets, bathroom benches, and more.

Cruises for Seniors with Mobility Issues

Cruises present an array of advantages for seniors with mobility issues. Some cruise lines offer accessible accommodations equipped with features like wider doorways and grab bars. Modern cruise ships prioritize accessibility with ramps, elevators, and wheelchair-friendly routes throughout the ship, ensuring easy access to amenities.

Dining flexibility allows you to enjoy diverse culinary experiences without extensive travel while organized onboard activities and entertainment enhance the cruise experience. Ports selected by cruise lines generally feature good accessibility, simplifying embarkation and disembarkation.

Some cruise ships provide wheelchair assistance, medical facilities, and a supportive, inclusive environment for social interaction.

Before booking, it’s crucial to communicate your specific mobility needs with the cruise line to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience tailored to your individual requirements.

Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian Cruise Line strives for inclusivity, regularly improving accessibility standards to exceed guest expectations. For travelers with special needs, the cruise line’s Accessibility Coordinators, dedicated to ensuring a safe and accessible experience, will reach out after receiving the Accessibility & Medical Questionnaire. Onboard, the Access Officer manages all special requirements for a hassle-free cruise, providing everyone the freedom to enjoy their vacation.

On embarkation day, a staff member will meet with you to address your accessibility needs throughout the cruise. Limited wheelchair-accessible staterooms are available, featuring grab bars in the bathrooms, adjustable hanging rods in the closets, shower seats, and extra-wide doors for easy access. Wheelchair rental services are provided for use on the vessels, and all Norwegian Cruise Line ships are equipped with pool lifts. Accessible restrooms are available in various public spaces across all ships.

Holland America Cruises

Holland America Cruises is committed to providing an exceptional cruising experience for all guests, including those with disabilities, offering various accessible features to enhance the voyage’s relaxation and enjoyment.

Guests are encouraged to contact the Guest Accessibility Department and submit a Special Requirements Information (SRI) Form well in advance of their cruise or cruise tour departure.

Celebrity Cruises

The Celebrity Cruise line extends boarding and departure assistance with wheelchairs to guests with mobility disabilities and offers similar assistance to guests who are blind. Guests can request assistance upon arrival at the pier or contact the cruise line in advance to prioritize their support. It’s important to note that during peak times, there may be a wait for assistance, and crew members are not allowed to lift guests. To facilitate a smoother process, guests with mobility disabilities receive expedited processing at the pier, and if boarding has not yet begun, priority boarding is offered.

Complimentary wheelchairs are provided for embarking and disembarking the ship. Guests requiring a wheelchair or scooter during the cruise have the option to bring their own or rent one from a company specializing in cruise rentals.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Do you have limited mobility? Do you enjoy traveling? What are your biggest challenges when traveling with limited mobility? Can you recommend any vacations for seniors with limited mobility? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Finding and establishing a key role in a network of dependable people is the cornerstone of a successful second half. In addition to cultivating social connections, provision and a sense of purpose and belonging, living in community with others is good for our long-term health and happiness.

A recent study from the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine indicates lack of community can be detrimental to older Americans’ aging experience. And it’s affecting more than one-quarter of Americans aged 65 or older.

To cite directly:

“People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual’s circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults.”

Biggest Risks of Social Isolation

Loneliness and isolation are not only bad for our minds, but they are also ruinous for our bodies! The Center for Disease Control and Prevention outlines the biggest risks to social isolation in older adults:

• Social isolation significantly increased a person’s risk of premature death from all causes, a risk that may rival those of smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity.
• Social isolation was associated with about a 50% increased risk of dementia.
• Poor social relationships (characterized by social isolation or loneliness) were associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke.
• Loneliness was associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.
• Loneliness among heart failure patients was associated with a nearly 4 times increased risk of death, 68% increased risk of hospitalization, and 57% increased risk of emergency department visits.

6 Ways to Build a Better Community After 60

Living in community with others is the answer to this epidemic. Someone who is “on the scene” is noticed, missed, needed and accounted for – very helpful qualities for battling loneliness and experiencing good care. All it takes is some dedication to and awareness of the process. Here are a few ways to discover or build a dependable network of support during our Golden Years:

Find a Faith Community with Which You Feel Comfortable Connecting and Make Use of Its Activities, Resources and Offerings

Places of worship are all about building community. No matter your faith experience or interest, you will find a place for yourself in studies, trips, volunteer opportunities and services. And because these institutions practice routine and dedication to mission, there is ample opportunity to get on a schedule and be known by like-minded individuals. Ask your friends and neighbors about area faith communities and where you might fit.

Join a Fitness, Social or Special Interest Club and Attend Classes or Events Regularly

Club communities of all kinds are active all around you! These spaces provide social interaction, education, health and wellness activities and networking opportunities, and more! Some clubs may require membership fees, but they are well worth the investment. In addition to meeting others who share similar interests, you can sharpen any skills or participate in activities that benefit your mental and physical health.

Walk, Enjoy or Engage with Others in Your Neighborhood Often, If Not on a Daily Basis

This activity is free! And it requires very little effort on your part. To better connect with people living near you, the only requirement is to open your front door and go outside. Being seen and known by your closest neighbors is valuable for aging in place.

Volunteer with an Organization That Is Important to You and Maintain a Routine or Service

The world needs more volunteers! Aligning your activities with a nonprofit organization or mission-based group will not only connect you with similarly passionate folks, it changes lives and helps you become more others-focused in your second half! And there’s no membership fee required.

Patronize Restaurants, Stores and Businesses Near You with Frequency and Enthusiasm

Get to know the folks who work there, be a person on the scene. Go often enough that you’re noticed if you aren’t there!

If you want your community to flourish, it is imperative to support the local retail enterprises near your home. This commitment also is a benefit for older adults. The more seniors are seen and known by others in the community, the more aware others are of potential problems or concerns. Buying local is a win-win for everyone.

Design a Role for Yourself Within Your Family or Close Friend Circles

Before you go looking far and wide for your place in the wider community, take a good hard look at the family and friends who already brighten your life. You could have a very important role to play in these spaces.

Younger family members, for example, may be struggling with childcare or transportation. Maybe you have a few extra hours to babysit or drive a carpool each week. Perhaps a friend or older adult in your family needs a little help with meal preparation or getting to appointments. There are plenty of folks who would gain from your special strength, availability or attention. Investment of your time and energy in these spaces pays dividends when you need a little extra help or attention down the road.

The saying, “It takes a village,” rings true as we approach the senior stroll. Without a connected support group, we can open ourselves up to loneliness and poor quality of life. Looking beyond ourselves and out into the community is the best way to thrive during our Golden Years.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How have you discovered support and community in the second half? What are some other ways folks over 60 can build a reliable network?

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Originally posted at: Rachel Fuda’s Tie Dye Tank Dress