In my work I get invited to work with the staff in all kinds of organizations. In the past 10 years I have had the opportunity to work with staff who work in Long Term Care Homes.
I always say, “God bless those people who work in long term care in this country.” The things they do on a daily basis to ensure a good quality of life for our loved ones is incredible. Many of them do not make much money, but they do have a passion for what they do.
Several years ago I was invited to work with the staff of a Long Term Care Home in Ottawa. I was there for a few days as I was presenting several half day staff sessions of my program, “Take This Job and …LOVE IT!
On the last day, the administrator came to me and asked me if I would mind making a brief presentation to the residents. What a great idea!
So, they brought all the residents into the meeting room and I had about 45 minutes to spend with people in their 80’s, 90’s and beyond. The time spent together was a lot of fun as I watched them laugh and learn.
After my session, one of the residents a woman by the name of Catharine came up to me and told me how much she enjoyed my talk. I spoke with her for a while and I was very impressed with her outlook, her enthusiasm and ENERGY. I asked her if I could ask her age and she said, “Don’t mind at all Bob, I’m 97.”
At the end of our conversation I took my gold “Amazing” pin from my jacket and I pinned it on her sweater and told her how “Amazing” I thought she was. I also told her how fortunate the other residents in the home were to have her there every day to remind them what life is really all about.
Several years later I was invited back to this same Home to work with the staff again. I asked the administrator hesitantly over the phone if Catherine was still there.
The Administrator said, “Yes she is Bob. She is now 101 and she is the head of the Residents Committee.” WOW! This woman had energy and she had proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that ENERGY has nothing to do with age. It has to do with PERSPECTIVE. Catharine, like many other people who live to be a good healthy age, know that being engaged in something important to you has a way of keeping you ALIVE. When I visited Catharine that day she was wearing her “AMAZING” pin.
I have learned that how much ENERGY you and I have at any given time in our lives has more to do with PERSPECTIVE than anything else. We often give away our energy needlessly, because we lose our perspective. We can add to our levels of energy every day, by the things that we PRACTICE.
This is something that Catherine knew, that I believe gave her this incredible outlook and energy at 101 years of age:
I believe that people who live their best lives, realize that doing positive things for other people is one of the major contributors that keeps us…
YOUNG, ENERGIZED and ALIVE!
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