Creating "What's Next" - A Personal Journey

creating

“what’s next”

A Personal Journey

It never fails to amaze me how one thing leads to another and another until one day you look back, and you see where you have been, how far you have come, and you can’t believe how it has all unfolded. The people you meet, the places you go, the ideas that inspire you and the choices you make – how they have all come together to play out and become your incredible life – a life you never could have imagined.

Let me tell you a story…. A story about transitions and resilience. Picture this… I’ve just turned 58. It’s five o’clock in the morning on the first day of my brand new position as public relations and media manager for the world famous Pebble Beach Resorts. I am responsible for staging and managing a weeklong photo shoot for our new brand partner, a famous automobile company, and I’m on my way out to the seventh hole to meet them. It’s dark, the cart path that I’m running along is still wet and slippery from the early morning fog, and all of a sudden I stumble on the edge of it, falling flat on my face and breaking my foot and spraining my ankle before I’ve even had a chance to say, “Good morning.”

Day two: Now I’m on crutches, but the shoot is moving along well. Suddenly my cell phone goes off, and it’s my gynecologist calling to tell me that the tests he had run the previous week have come back positive - I have uterine cancer - and he is scheduling surgery for the following week.

Day three – Still on crutches – I’m in my doctor’s office for some preop testing when he discovers a serious arrhythmia. It turns out that I also have viral cardiomyopathy, a condition that weakens the heart muscle and its ability to contract.

I am now down three for three on the first week of my brand new dream job. What to do? Give up, retire and go home? Absolutely not! That was not an option. I was determined to get through this and to make the second half of my life even more phenomenal than the first half had been. For years I had been a stay-at-home mom raising our six children with my husband, Wally, and now it was my time. I had figured out what I wanted my next chapter to look like, and I wasn’t about to give it all up.

How had I arrived at this place in my life? I firmly believe that life’s opportunities expand in proportion to our courage to seek them out. Imagine what you’d like your next chapters to look like and then, Thoughts – Words – Action. Get started with small steps (I started at Pebble Beach in an entry level position) but take that first step. Not sure what you want to do? Try looking backward to move forward. Think about the things you used to enjoy doing, ideas that captured your interest, and then keep your eyes and ears open, remembering that opportunities are everywhere if we are just open to them. Follow your intuition, and when something comes along that excites you, go for it! Scared to death? Confidence lacking? One of my favorite quotes comes from Eleanor Roosevelt: “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

Here are my most valuable tips when it comes to creating “What’s Next”:

• Take that first step.

• Attitude is everything! Be positive and watch your fears dissipate. • Ask for what you want. You will be amazed at how often people will say, “yes.”

• Change happens in a moment.

Recognize an opportunity and when a door opens, walk through it. • Nervous? Visualize a positive ending. • Feeling stuck? Remember that opportunities come when you least expect them.

• Facing retirement and wondering what you want to do next?

Don’t let who you were define who you are.

Consider the common denominator in all of these points I’ve just made about how to create “What’s Next.” What is it? It’s confidence! We have to have confidence if we are going to create “What’s Next.” We have to believe that we, as individuals, can make this new phase in our lives a startling success. Furthermore, we can inspire others to believe in themselves and to know that they, too, can create “What’s Next,” no matter what their age.

Author, model, speaker Valerie Ramsey has just given us her second book, Creating What’s Next – Gracefully, written with Heather Hummel, and featuring a foreword by actress Ali MacGraw, star of Love Story, Goodbye Columbus, and The Getaway, among many others.

See what Ben Saunders, Polar Explorer, has to say: “If I’ve learned anything in nearly 12 years now of dragging heavy things around cold places, it is that true, real inspiration and growth only comes from adversity and from challenge, from stepping away from what’s comfortable and familiar and stepping out into the unknown…” I certainly would implore you to open the door just a little bit and take a look at “What’s Next”

No one ever said transitions are easy, but with the right attitude and an open mind, we can get through them, and when we do, the rewards are extraordinary. So, go ahead. Take that first step towards creating your own “What’s Next.” I did it and I know you can do it too.

Valerie is now 76 and is still creating new chapters in her life. She has recently taken on the position of Executive Editor of Fabulously 50+ magazine www. fabulously50.com. She jumped into the corporate world at age 53 after being a stay-at-home mom raising six children. She has been modeling since she turned 63, and she is the author of two books, Gracefully – Looking & Being Your Best at Any Age and Creating What’s Next – Gracefully, both written with Heather Hummel. Valerie is with Premiere Speakers Bureau. Find her on www.valerieramsey.com or email her at Valerie@fabulously50.com.

Supposing you hit a speed bump along the way, as I did? Let’s consider resilience for a moment because it’s something that everyone over 50 has certainly had to call upon at one time or another. I would like to share with you some of the important lessons I learned as I was recovering from cancer and heart disease:

1. Learn to look at challenges as your greatest opportunities – see them as opportunities to learn, to grow, to achieve. You never really know what is good for you; what may seem like the absolute worst thing to happen to you can, in fact, turn out be the best.

2. Have a purpose – something positive to look forward to - your “What’s Next.“

3. You have been through tough times before and gotten through them. Extrapolate the best from those times and draw on that inner strength.

4. Resilience needs the expectation of success. Have high expectations. Expect yourself to be resilient and to bounce back from whatever life throws at you. Be your own best motivator. I have everything I need right here inside of me.

5. Honor your sensuality. Keep love in your life: touch, hug, laugh, dance, hear the music!

6. Nurture your spirituality. Meditate. A beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset. For example: Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.

7. Laugh at yourself and show gratitude. It’s hard to wallow in negativity or self-pity if you’re keeping a gratitude journal.

8. Reach out to help others. I personally have found that women (and sometimes men too) over 50 are hungry for inspiration, motivation, support, and encouragement on how to be resilient, and they want guidance on how to create “What’s Next.” These have become my favorite topics to write and speak about.