23: Finishing Well
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
AS I WRITE THIS DEVOTION, I’m sitting on an airplane heading home after three full days facilitating a training for business leadership.
A man and woman are sitting behind me engaged in a rousing conversation. It’s difficult not to listen in. They’re in their mid 50s, and it’s obvious they are meeting each other for the first time.
The woman said to the man, “I will not retire.” To which he responds, “And what does finishing well mean to you?” She says, “It’s about dollars!”
An intriguing conversation, to say the least!
But it got me thinking: What does it mean to finish well?
Much has been written and spoken on this. Here are four principles on this topic gleaned from various authors and discussions.
Never stop setting goals. What does your life mission statement look like? Three questions I often ask myself are:
- How is my capacity and sustainability changing?
- What adjustments do I need to make?
- What does success look like for me twelve months from now?
Find a mentor or two. Who’s investing in you? Seek out a few people to be confidants and use them as sounding boards. Also allow them to speak into your life. One of my key mentors, Dr. Roger Birkman, always carried a small notepad around and would write down thoughts from others that he wanted to remember. He showed me a box that was filled with these notepads.
Develop a habit of being thankful.
Stay committed. If you’re married, stay with your wife or husband. Seek counseling if you need to. More and more couples in the 55+ demographic are calling it quits. What a tragedy!
I use a quote from Søren Kierkegaard in my e-mail signature that reminds me not to focus on past failures but rather to learn from them and move forward. “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”[1]
Questions
- Do you have a life mission statement? If you do, does it need to be amended? Write one or amend it as needed.
- In what ways have your capacity and sustainability changed as you’ve grown older? How does this affect the goal of finishing well?
- It’s important that our personal resiliency, strength, and wisdom be a focus for us in light of the challenges we face during our later years. How can you continue to have resiliency now and in the future?