Tuesday's writing prompt is What do you want to with the second half of your life?
2-22-2022 And it’s a Tuesday! A magical day to do a writing prompt on Happiness! Grab a pen and some paper. Set a timer to 15 minutes. Write as fast as you can to bypass the logical side of your brain and access your creative side, the passion within. Do not edit! Just write whatever comes to your mind and try not to think too hard about it. What do you want to do with the second half of your life?
Bonus points if you can add in random acts of kindness and reverse the bucket list. See below.
Here are two interesting article on happiness. This first on is on random acts of kindness and the health benefits. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/random-acts-of-kindness-day-2022-wellness/index.html. And the second one is about creating a reverse bucket list to figure out what do want to do. https://apple.news/AeWxKDhXnQaadNe2iHu09YA.
Here’s an 8-minute interview with Arthur Brooks on cracking the code to happiness in the second half of life. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/15/1080884952/arthur-brooks-on-cracking-the-code-to-happiness-in-the-second-half-of-life
Here’s what I wrote: My reverse bucket list would be taking off the things I thought I wanted to do in my youth like be a medical doctor or genetic engineering and accepting that my life long career has been as an author because I’ve been doing that since 1999 and have published seven books and written 10.
And now I help other authors realize their goals through Random Acts of Kindness every Tuesday and I’ve expanded that to online for free by making this website.
If we are being honest, I do not make a lot of money as an author. I give away more books than I sell. Being an author has given me the freedom to stay home and raise our family. And that’s been a huge blessing for me. Plus I’ve done a lot of healing through writing.
I’m a stay-at-home mom! In three short years my chicks will have all flown the coop. Eek.
My adult life has turned out way better than any of my wildest childhood dreams. So why do I act as though I need to accomplish more? Be more. Do more. Brooks asks, when we feel dissatisfied or terror at the shortness of time, we automatically grasp for more-more money, more power, more accolades. Maybe the solutions is less.
Thinking about the second half of my life, what do I want to do or maybe subtract? For me, that answer lies in my need to change others and instead accept others as they are believing that we are all here to do different things.
I’m such a control freak and I want everyone to have a safe, productive life. I don’t want anyone to die on my watch and that’s out of my control. I come up with all kinds of crazy solutions to keep folks from not dying like finding a code to end violence or addressing climate change. The title of my last book is The Call to See. Do you not see what’s happening to our planet? Then, I wrote the next book The Call to be a Tree and the solutions to fix global warming. It’s with the publisher. Yeah. That’s me. The dreamer. I think I can fix everything!
So. Basically letting go and letting life unfold naturally without expectations. So hard to do! My next book is The Call to be Free and it’s about letting you be you and and me be me. Loving what is and trusting that together we will get to where we need to be. ❤️
