How To Escape The Illusion Of A Happy Retirement Word Count: 1116 Summary: Most of us were told to stay in school and get a good education. After that, it was “find a decent job, work hard, and then enjoy a safe and quiet retirement.” However, statistics show that only a fraction of us truly enjoy their retirement, for the following reasons: * Not enough retirement money * Cut off from the creative work place * To old to do what you really wanted to do * Health problems 50 years ago working at a company was safe; however, this concept is co... Keywords: retirement, retire, happiness, rich, money, personal, development, goal, finance, independent Article Body: Most of us were told to stay in school and get a good education. After that, it was “find a decent job, work hard, and then enjoy a safe and quiet retirement.” However, statistics show that only a fraction of us truly enjoy their retirement, for the following reasons: * Not enough retirement money * Cut off from the creative work place * To old to do what you really wanted to do * Health problems 50 years ago working at a company was safe; however, this concept is completely outdated in our fast-growing information age. Nowadays, you’d better watch out; your workplace might be monitored as to whether you could be replaced by something cheaper, or even worse, completely automated. Today, productivity and expanding profits for shareholders are almost the only forces that drive corporations and companies. You as a worker are just a small wheel in the gear box, which at any moment could be re-assembled with fewer parts. Knowing this causes fear. Many would rather work while sick than risk losing their job. For some, the pressure becomes almost unbearable, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. To compound the problem, we shop, spending more money on things we don’t need, in the illusion of gaining a few hours or days of happiness. Shopping becomes our daily mantra. Someone once said, “we do things we don’t like, to buy stuff we don’t need.” Instead of connecting with our spiritual force, we connect with our money. The outcome is stagnation. How to Get Out of This Disaster? Better yet, what can we do to avoid it in the first place? Realize that you are a spiritual being who creates your human experience, not the other way around. Even if you don’t know it, you have chosen this lifetime to have certain experiences. You chose a spiritual path before you came to this earth. You are not only your body. You are not only your mind and thoughts. If there is anything that is important in your life, it is finding out who you are. If you devote enough time, you will find an answer. The answer may surprise you, and you may not be able to share it with anyone; however, knowing who you are is the key to making this life the way you planned it from the beginning. It is part of our task in life to reconnect with a spiritual path. Nature gives us a body, but no owner’s manual. It seems that at a certain time in life, you discover the ability to connect with your spirituality. At birth, you are like a construction set for a radio; over time, you assemble yourself, and when you’re done and all the parts are connected correctly, you are able to transmit and receive signals to and from the universe. Using your ‘radio’ is the most powerful instrument you can imagine. The connections you can make are unlimited. You can send and receive from every other person in this universe, no matter where this person is located. Some call it the soul; scientists talk about the inter-connectedness of everything. Quantum physics even proves that we are all connected with each other and we are all made out of the same substance. This conclusion goes as far as assuming that there is only one mind, in various forms. When you have a thought, it may not be yours. And when you think, it may have not originated from inside yourself. To have a fulfilled life, you’ll want to find the answer to who you are, as quickly as possible. Why? Because if you do, you’ve found the owner’s operating manual. And having that, you just follow the instructions and use your mind and feelings accordingly. The Difference Between Knowing And Experiencing The best part is that you find the confidence that comes from taking the right path. It is a path you don’t need to think about; it is given. It is like the difference between someone describing the taste of an apple to you, and actually eating the apple. If you were told how an apple tastes, and you’d never tasted one, you would only have others’ interpretations to go by. In this scenario, you’re at the mercy of others, and there is much room for confusion. The moment you taste the apple, you know how it tastes. This knowing is fundamental and nobody can take it away. It is your own experience. Even if 10,000 people now tried to convince you how that apple tastes, you would not even bother to listen to them, as your knowledge has become your truth. This evening, turn off the TV and sit quietly, thinking about your life for 30 minutes: * Do I like what I am doing in my life? * Do I live my full potential? * Am I happy with what I am doing? * Is there something I like to do but have put off for a long time? Find your strength; understand that you are unique. There is no other person on earth the same as you. If you are not aware of this, start finding out right now. The moment you understand and experience your uniqueness, you must live your life in a extraordinary way. Everything else is a lie. This unique way is the dream that you always wanted to live. Allow yourself, for a moment at least, to think about this dream and explore it. Your mind may reject it at first; just review it - nothing bad will happen. You are just exploring it in your mind. Doing this exercise, you are connecting with your life dream, your path to walk on this earth. Now you have two choices; either you explore more of your dream, and maybe start going into details, or, you allow fear to take over and dismiss your beautiful dream. Your first choice will lead to being more alive, the second choice leads to death. No, I don’t mean physical death - you won’t die; however, your life force, and everything that makes life worthwhile, withers. It is not important how long you live on this earth. Time is an illusion. You can have a fulfilled life in this very moment, when you are in touch with your life dream. This can be so powerful that this moment feels eternal to you. Everything is realized in this moment and there is nothing to accomplish - it is the perfect moment; you are experiencing life to its fullest. Imagine: What would your life be if you would stay connected with your life’s dream in every single moment?