Have You Reached These Milestones? - Life Lessons Part 6

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On this episode of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older we unravel the milestones of successful aging.

Have you found your passion? Have you learned how to forgive?  How is your journey to true inner peace going?

We're looking at these life milestones and more in seeking to understand how achieving them can help you find personal success, and how does aging aid in this journey?

Your journey is unique, and we want you to share it with us! Hear how you can become part of this thriving community, exchanging stories and experiences about the aging process. I invite you to spread the word, subscribe for free, and be an integral part of this ongoing dialogue. There's power in togetherness, and as we navigate the complexities of growing older, remember that your voice matters. Be kind to yourself and others, and never forget that in this shared journey, you are never alone.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older.
On this episode I want to lookat some of the milestones in
life that you can look at tokind of gauge and judge if
you've been successful.

(00:20):
Not to say that you must hitall of these milestones to be
successful.
I'm not trying to say that atall.
You could be very successfuland content in many ways and not
have hit any of these, butthese are some that I read about
on a website called A ConsciousRethink.
It was written by Jack Nolan.

(00:41):
I thought he brought us somereally great points and would
love your feedback too.
So if you get the opportunity,be sure to scroll down to the
show notes.
You can leave me a message.
Just click on the leave me amessage link and it will take
you to my SpeakPipe page and youcan leave a 90 second message
for me.
Really easy to do.
You don't have to give me yourfirst born or anything like that

(01:02):
, just your name and, if youwant, you can give me your email
and I'll write you back when Iget the message.
Easy to do for you to become apart of the show and to present
some of your feedback to me.
So these are some of themilestones that Mr Nolan brought
up, and let's see if we agreewith them.
I read over them and I think yes, I think he hit the point on

(01:23):
some of them, the first onebeing you have overcome your
fears.
That's kind of a broad one andsort of tough to look at For me.
I'm claustrophobic, and I havenot overcome my fear of tight or
closed spaces.
It is not possible for me to gointo an MRI machine without

(01:44):
being heavily medicated orunconscious.
To be honest, it just doesn'thappen at all.
So that's a real big problemwith medical issues.
I believe, though, that what theauthor was talking about here
was perhaps some of the fears.
Like you were in a relationshipthat ended badly and do you
stop yourself from getting intoanother relationship for fear of

(02:07):
being hurt again.
Did you get let go from a job,or did you leave a job under bad
conditions, and now you're justkind of sitting back saying,
well, it's not worth it.
These are the fears that Ithink you have to worry about.
You know, it's the old sayingif you fall off a horse or, in
our cases, we were growing up abicycle you get right back on
and start all over again.

(02:27):
That's how our parents taughtus not to be afraid of things or
afraid of life.
So once you confront your fears, we have to remember there is
no limit to what you canaccomplish.
Another point brought up isyou've learned to forgive.
This is a huge one for me.
Learning to forgive issomething that people struggle
with their entire life, and I'mso jealous of people that can do

(02:50):
it 100%.
I'm going to be honest with you.
There was a situation in mylife from about five or six
years ago, and I have not foundthe capacity to forgive.
In other ways, though, peoplehave done me terrible wrongs in
my life that I absolutely haveforgiven, and I know that I have

(03:11):
hurt people, especially when Iwas younger.
I did things that were perhapsnot admirable, and those people
forgave me, and I thank you forthat.
I think also, part of it is yourealize after a while that when
you hold on to something fortoo long, it doesn't hurt the
people that did you wrong.
It only hurts yourself.

(03:32):
It prevents you from movingforward in life.
So forgiveness brings peace andclarity, and that's something
we should all be striving for.
You've built great relationshipsin your life yeah, isn't that
one?
Now I'm going to tell yousomething.
You know we talk about beingolder in this podcast and one of

(03:54):
the things I've noticed andmany, many other people I've
talked to around my age a littlebit younger one of the things
we all agree on is it's verydifficult to make new friends,
close friends, as you get older.
But still, my best friends arethe ones that I knew in high
school or in college or that Iknew from a long time ago.

(04:14):
There are very few peoplecurrently in my life that are
more than acquaintances or goodacquaintances.
Most of my friends are people Ihave known a very, very long
time, decades and decades.
So it's nice to know that Ihave built those great
relationships and I hope youhave too, and I hope you have
too, and I hope you keep trying.

(04:34):
I know I do, but I wish someonecould explain to me and this is
a great idea, maybe for afuture episode why is it so hard
to make a new close friend asyou age?
I can't think of anyone whosays, yeah, my best friend, I
met them a year ago and you'rein your 60s.
You know, your best friend issomeone that you knew decades

(04:55):
ago and was probably your bestman or, you know, a bridesmaid
at your wedding or somethinglike that.
You have discovered your passion.
Passion brings joy andfulfillment and purpose.
You know, I was someone who fora long time, let my job, my

(05:19):
work, define who I was.
I lost sight of my goal.
My passion became work and I'mgoing to tell you, in my opinion
, my friends, that is not a goodthing.
Work should not be a passion.
You can be passionate aboutwork and want to do the right
thing.
Obviously, this is how you getfinancial reward, how you
achieve, maybe, financialsecurity of some kind.

(05:41):
But if it's overriding what'shappening in your life or daily
life or your family, if you'reneglecting doing the things that
bring you happiness, that's nota good thing.
So, discovering your passionand pursuing that, what a
wonderful idea and wonderfulthing to do.

(06:02):
Hey, for me it's been podcasting.
Look for better or for worse,no matter what you or other
people might think of thepodcast, it's a passion for me.
I enjoy doing it, I enjoyshowing up, I enjoy spreading
the information and for me, if athousand people listen or if 10
people listen, the passion isthere.
It's all the same.

(06:22):
Would I like a thousand, 10,000, a hundred thousand.
Of course, would I like to beJoe Rogan who wouldn't?
But then again, there's a lotof pressure with being Joe Rogan
, huh, and having to maintainall of that.
I like you.
I thank you for being a memberof this podcasting family,
because this is my passion.

(06:42):
Work is no longer my passion,that's just a means to an end.
You have made a positive impact.
You know, recently I was aguest on another podcast and
someone asked me how I'd like tobe remembered and I said I
would like to be remembered assomeone who made a difference.
That's kind of been my motto inlife for the last few years.

(07:04):
Make a difference is what Itell people they should do.
Make a difference in life.
You've had a positive impact.
I was at one job where I wasable to create a program for
teenagers to get more involvedin the arts.
Even though I'm no longer atthat job, that program continues
years now since I helped createit back in 2010.

(07:24):
It's still having a positiveimpact on the life of teenagers
in the community that I live in.
You've learned from yourfailures, man Failure.
Just tell you this, my friendsfailure is not a dirty word.
In fact, it's a normal path tosuccess.
Failure teaches us lessons thatwe can't learn when we are

(07:47):
succeeding.
So true.
I remember when my firstmarriage broke up, I thought I
was a failure.
My parents had been marriedsince briefly out of high school
and their entire lives.
I thought that's the way lifewas supposed to be.
I believe what was happening inmy family and what I saw in the

(08:07):
movies and TV shows, and so Ifelt like a failure for a long
time afterwards.
There are things that I've donein my life where I thought,
well, I failed at that and I letit bring me down, let it have a
negative impact.
As I look back on my life now,I realize that every time it
happened, I actually learnedfrom it.
My first marriage might've onlylasted a very brief time, but

(08:30):
I'm currently in a marriagethat's about to celebrate 40
years in 2025.
So do you think I learned fromthat failure?
Absolutely, we can't letfailure define us.
Failure is what propels usforward.
It's not a dirty word.
It's actually a positive thing,because if you go through life

(08:52):
and this is for all the youngerlisteners here if you go through
life thinking you will neverfail, that if you fail that's
bad, then you're always going tobe looking over your shoulder
when you're attempting anythingand you can't do that.
Sometimes you have to plowstraight into a project or a
desire or a passion and if youfail at it or it doesn't succeed

(09:15):
completely the way you wantedit to, that's okay.
Failure is not a bad thing,folks.
The way you wanted it to,that's okay.
Failure is not a bad thing,folks, as long as you learn from
it.
And the last one you haveexperienced moments of true
inner peace, moments like thisthat can be fleeting in life,
friends.
It can be hard to find innerpeace, especially in today's

(09:37):
world with everything that'sgoing on, all the stress, all
the tension I know.
For me, whenever I have beenclose to or able to access the
ocean, that's when I really hadinner peace.
I've talked before also abouthow mindfulness meditation has
helped me, but really, in thetimes I've been on a boat or a

(09:58):
cruise and I can just find timeto just sit quietly by myself
and stare out at the ocean or goto the beach, not for the
purpose of getting a suntan orof swimming or anything else,
but just simply to look out atthe majesty of the ocean, it
really does make me feelpeaceful and whatever that is

(10:21):
for you, make sure you do it andtry to do it on a regular basis
.
We're constantly hit withnegative news, negative
impressions.
We're buried in our phones.
Social media hits us all thetime.
It's like we never hear anygood news anymore.
So find those moments of innerpeace.

(10:42):
That's when you'll know thatyou've been successful in life.
My friends, I want to thank youfor joining me on this episode
of Bill Monty's Guide forGetting Older and our current
series, life Lessons.
We went through a whole bunchof life lessons in this episode
right here, and I hope that youcan relate to some of the things
that I've talked about.
And again, as I mentioned atthe beginning, please scroll

(11:03):
down in the show notes, leave mea message Very easy to do and
tell me about the things thatyou've done in life.
Have you overcome a fear?
Have you found that moment ofinner peace?
Have you made a positive impact?
If not, is that what you strivefor, what you're trying to do?
I hope so.
I also hope you'll take amoment to just hit that like

(11:24):
button.
Share this episode and thepodcast with your friends and
family.
Comment I'd love to know whatyou think about it and subscribe
.
Subscribing doesn't costanything.
It just means you'll benotified when a new episode
drops.
As always, my friends, I thankyou so much for being a part of

(11:44):
Bill Monty's Guide for GettingOlder, for being a part of my
passion, and until we speakagain, I remind you please
always be kind and be safe.
But you're feeling cold, you'renot sure what to do.
Without a friendly shoulder,you're not alone, so start

(12:06):
feeling bolder.
Welcome to Bill Monty's Guidefor Getting Older.