Books Archive

The Great Age Reboot

Retirement Wisdom · Dec 2, 2024 ·

by Michael F. Roizen, M.D.

We can all agree that there’s nothing more important than your health. But what are the most important things we can do to stay healthy in a rapidly changing world of healthcare?

The Great Reboot:Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow by Michael Roizen, a renowned physician and Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, offers readers a comprehensive guide to reclaiming health and well-being as we age. Drawing upon his expertise in preventive medicine and public health, Roizen presents a roadmap for navigating the challenges of aging and emerging stronger, healthier, and more resilient than ever before. At the heart of the book is Dr.Roizen’s idea of The Great Reboot, a transformative opportunity to step back and reimagine our lives, and then taking steps to prioritize our health and well-being. He argues that the pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of our current healthcare system and underscored the importance of taking charge of your health through proactive measures that can prevent illness and promote wellness.

Dr. Roizen explores the impact of the aging process on various aspects of health, from physical fitness and nutrition to mental health and stress management. He provides practical strategies for fortifying the immune system, including evidence-based recommendations for diet, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction. By prioritizing these foundational pillars of health, you can bolster your defenses against infection and enhance their overall resilience. Roizen also delves into the role of technology and innovation in that’s transforming healthcare delivery today. He explores the potential of telemedicine, wearable devices, and digital health platforms that seek to empower people to take control of their health and engage in proactive and effective self-care.

One of the book’s most compelling takeaways is Roizen’s emphasis on the importance of community and social connection in promoting health and well-being. He highlights the interconnectedness of human health and the importance of fostering supportive relationships and social networks. Through acts of kindness, empathy, and compassion, people can build resilience and strengthen their sense of belonging in the face of adversity.

In The Great Age Reboot Dr. Roizen blends scientific insights with practical advice to empower you to take charge of your health. He provides actionable recommendations and step-by-step guidance to implement positive changes in their lives and navigate the uncertainties of the current, dynamic healthcare system with confidence and resilience. Dr. Roizen’s holistic approach to wellness offers a valuable roadmap for becoming stronger and healthier than perhaps ever before. Whether you’re looking to boost your immune system, manage stress, or foster deeper connections with others, this book provides invaluable insights and practical strategies for living your best life in your next phase of life.

Read The Great Reboot:Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

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Retirement Wisdom · Nov 14, 2024 ·

By Lorraine Besser, PhD

In her groundbreaking book The Art of the Interesting, Dr. Lorraine Besser introduces a fresh perspective on creating a fulfilling life. As a professor of philosophy at Middlebury College and a founding researcher on psychological richness, Besser challenges traditional notions of the good life centered solely on happiness and meaning. She argues that there’s a key third element that’s often overlooked: the interesting. She defines this as experiences that captivate our minds, engage our thoughts and emotions, and have the power to shift our perspectives. The concept of “psychological richness” emerges through experiences that are novel, complex and challenging, and is a vital pillar of a well-lived life.

Lorraine Besser presents a compelling case for keeping things interesting. The book argues that cultivating genuine interest may be more important in creating a fulfilling life than the relentless pursuit of happiness. At the heart of the book is the idea that “interesting” is not passive, but an active force that shapes our experiences and personal growth. She distinguishes between the superficial and deep, meaningful engagement enriches our lives. One of the key messages is how interest relates to meaning-making. Rather than seeing interest as a stepping stone to knowledge, Besser views it as a fundamental way of being in the world that shapes our relationships, choices, and personal development.

An insight from the book that garnered my attention is her point that the worst thing you can do is to pursue the interesting. Counterintuitively, rather than chasing it, Besser notes it’s best to cultivate the conditions in which it can emerge through mindfulness, openness to new experiences, and trying new things, including small things. She believes it’s about developing the skills to recognize and pursue genuine curiosity.

Another key point in the book is about being intentional about stepping out of your comfort zone, even slightly, to find your Zone of the Interesting. She graphically shows the Zone of the Interesting as adjacent to your Comfort Zone, showing that it’s accessible, and far from the Danger Zone, where things are not interesting – but overwhelming.

The Art of the Interesting is a valuable read for people planning for life in retirement as cultivating interests can provide structure, meaning, and direction to our lives. While research-based, the book offers practical tools, exercises and reflections to help you identify what is personally interesting and how to incorporate more of these elements into your daily life. In addition, the book blends the academic with storytelling (and a sense of humor) that makes it an enjoyable read that will expand and enrich your view of the good life you’re building.

Read: The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It

Listen to my podcast conversation with Lorriane Besser, PhD

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Retirement Wisdom · Nov 11, 2024 ·

by Teresa M. Amabile, Lotte Bailyn, Marcy Crary, Douglas T. Hall and Kathy E. Kram

This is far and away the best book I’ve read on retirement in many years (and I’ve read a lot of books on retirement).

In Retiring: Creating a Life that Works for You, Teresa Amabile and her collaborators present a fresh and thoughtful exploration of retirement. Through a research-based approach complemented by engaging storytelling, they challenge common beliefs about retirement and provide a practical framework to shape a retirement life aligned with your values, aspirations, and personality. The book goes well beyond financial planning and offers valuable insights that can help you discover what will bring you meaning and satisfaction in this new phase of life.

A main point of the book is that each person’s retirement journey will be different, and that’s very helpful for people entering the transition. Many are used to comparing their timeline and expectations to peers throughout their lives and careers, but in retirement, the pace and length of the transition period will vary greatly. This will be liberating for many people to know upfront. The authors note that retiring well takes work, but it’s worth it and offer a high-level roadmap to building a new life structure that fits your priorities, aspirations and circumstances.

An important finding from the research that the book is based on is the four developmental tasks in retirement. This provides readers with a logical sequence of areas of focus to use as a guide, armed with the knowledge that the timeline is flexible based on your particular situation and priorities. The first task is deciding when and how to retire. It’s an important decision that deserves careful consideration and evaluation of key financial and non-financial factors. The second task is detaching from work, both in managing your exit from the workplace, but psychologically as well. The latter can be challenging for many people who encounter a period of significant change and loss that they are often unprepared for, including a loss of identity, structure, social connection and sense of purpose. The third task is experimenting to build a new life structure. Think of it as a working draft version. This comes from exploring new activities, relationships, organizations to join and be open to trying new things. The fourth task is consolidating the experiments and the working draft version into a stable structure in your retirement life.

Throughout the book, the authors present Life Maps from retirees who participated in their research, free-form drawings depicting their life and how they invest their time – one before they retired and one later in retirement. The Life Maps underscore the point that each retirement is indeed different and they provide vivid portraits of the shifts people experience in moving from a work-focused phase of life to a more diversified life they create in retirement.

Teresa Amabile, who recently retired from Harvard Business School, turns her research expertise to the subject of how to build a fulfilling retirement. Her background and expertise in creativity and motivation infuses this work with insights on how you can channel your curiosity discover new pursuits and cultivate intrinsic motivation as you transition away from full-time work. The book reframes retirement not as a “winding down,” but as a time full of potential for personal growth, connection, and achievement.

Rather than viewing retirement as simply “free time,” Teresa Amabile and her co-authors encourage you to establish a balanced routine that blends relaxation and fun with meaningful activities, such as creative projects, part-time work, or mentorship roles. They argue that having a structured approach to the days and weeks will help you find a rhythm and purpose, while still allowing for the spontaneity that this stage of life affords. Recognizing the risks of isolation, Amabile and her co-authors highlight the importance of nurturing relationships, finding new communities, and staying engaged. They suggest avenues for building connections, such as joining groups centered around shared interests, volunteering, or even forming new social circles.

Retiring: Creating a Life that Works for You is a comprehensive and inspiring guide for anyone seeking a fulfilling retirement. Through a balance of research, real-life stories, and actionable recommendations, Amabile and her co-authors will help you see retirement not as an end, but genuinely as a new beginning.

Listen to my podcast conversation with Teresa Amabile

Read the Book – Retiring: Create a Life That Works for You

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The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Retirement Wisdom · Oct 12, 2024 ·

Christine Benz, the director of personal finance at Morningstar, has written an insightful guide to achieving a financially secure retirement in How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Healthy, Successful and Wealthy Retirement. A trusted voice in the world of financial advice, Benz draws from her extensive experience and lessons gleaned from conversations with twenty experts (including Wade Pfau, Fritz Gilbert, Dr. Jordan Grumet and Kerry Hannon) to provide ideas and resources to a create a satisfying and secure retirement. This book is particularly timely given today’s complex and dynamic financial landscape, where retirement planning can feel overwhelming.

The book is organized into sections that address the major aspects of retirement planning, including setting clear goals, evaluating investment strategies, exploring strategies to create income in retirement, tax planning, and more. Each section includes with practical tips, real-life examples, and actionable takeaways that can help you to take charge of your retirement future.

What I liked best about How to Retire is it’s holistic approach. Unlike the vast majority of books on retirement, Christine Benz goes beyond the important financial topics and gives a balanced picture of retirement planning with thoughtful attention to the non-financial aspects, including lifestyle planning, health care costs, and emotional readiness for retirement, which are often overlooked. This is a book that helps you think comprehensively about retirement – and extend your thinking beyond the numbers. Building a strong financial foundation is critical, but How to Retire encourages you to consider other dimensions starting with what you envision your retirement to look like in terms of lifestyle, personal fulfillment, and perhaps potential second careers and/or new pursuits.

How to Retire by Christine Benz is a valuable resource for anyone looking to build a strong retirement plan across the full spectrum of retirement challenges and opportunities. If you’re thinking about retirement Christine Benz’s book can help you chart a course to retire with confidence.

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Listen to my podcast conversation with Christine Benz of Morningstar

Buy How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement

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Retirement Wisdom · Oct 5, 2024 ·

By Marissa G. Franco, PhD

People get that social connectivity is essential for health and longevity. But one question I often get from clients isn’t about the “What”, it’s about the “How.” If they’re leaving their job and the relationships at work they’ve built up over the years, or if they’re moving to a new community, how do they create new friendships? For some, this is an easy question, but for many people, especially some men, it’s quite challenging.

In Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends, a New York Times Bestseller, Dr. Marissa Franco brings some research-based ideas and useful action steps. The book offers insights into the dynamics of friendship through the lens of attachment theory. With a blend of scientific research, personal anecdotes, and practical advice, she presents a compelling case for the transformative power of understanding how friendship works – and how that can help you cultivate and maintain meaningful relationships as an adult.

The book begins by laying the groundwork of attachment theory. Franco translates this theory into the world of adult friendships, pointing out that our early attachment experiences continue to shape our interpersonal dynamics throughout our lives. By understanding our attachment style—whether it’s secure, anxious, or avoidant—we can gain insight into our patterns of behavior and communication in friendships that can help us in building new ones.

Through stories and examples that you can easily relate to, Franco shows how attachment styles show up in various aspects of friendship, from the initial stages of forming connections to how we navigate conflicts and maintain connection over time. She breaks down the challenges and rewards of each attachment style, offering strategies for overcoming common mistakes and tips for creating healthier, more fulfilling relationships.

One of the book’s strongest points is on how much vulnerability and authenticity matter in friendships. Marissa Franco argues that genuine connections are built on a foundation of trust and emotional openness. They help to share their true selves and feel seen and valued by others. She offers practical tips on how to get comfortable being more vulnerable in friendships and how to become more accepting of others. In addition, she urges people to set healthy boundaries and prioritize self-care in friendships, and how to navigate or disengage from toxic, draining relationships.

This book is a valuable resource for people who are looking to find or create a new tribe in retirement. It will also help you to become an even better friend.

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Listen to my podcast conversation with Dr. Marissa Franco here

Buy the book here

You may also be interested in my podcast conversation with science journalist David Robson on his book The Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social Network

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