Today, January 20, 2009, is Inauguration Day and the world seems different. The weather, the economy, the world remain the same yet most people feel something rarely felt during the previous year – we feel hopeful.
Hope, the belief that better times are coming, has been in short supply in this country. I expect that hard core cynics are resisting this opportunity to believe in the future, but they are clearly in today’s minority. To be hopeful, we free up our thinking and become optimists. It is a happy example of how attitude can trump reality.
It will be up to President Obama to lead us and up to us to do what we can to harness this impermanent feeling of hope and turn it into a reality.
So what does this have to do with your retirement? Notice how you feel today. There are not many times when we can feel a pure emotion like hope. Note how it feels today so you can recall it in the future. We can all use as many positive experiences as we can get, and we enhance our enjoyment of them when we recognize them as they occur.
Bill Roiter: Beyond Work 