Rx for Retirement: Boomer's Guide to Memoir Writing

By Sandra W. Evans

Imagine turning back the hands of time, stepping into an imaginary ship and slowly sailing along a parallel path of your life. Rx for Retirement: Boomer’s Guide to Memoir Writing takes you on this journey down the path of your life to discover the purpose of your life and what you leave behind, your living legacy. This is a journey that only you can take because it encompasses your whole life. This essential guide provides careful instruction for collecting the information needed to write your life story. Complete with graphic illustrations, fill-in-the-blanks and tables, the guide is a chronicle containing your life history and provides instruction for writing your life story in a memoir format. As any life well lived deserves notice, the treasure chest that makes up your life merits documenting by you for posterity purposes. Capturing the details of your life on paper and writing the story of your life is your opportunity to make your life matter. Your completed memoir leaves a living legacy for your children and grandchildren to be handed down to generations to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9780977776146

Sandra W. Evans

Sandra W. Evans has more than twenty-five years of experience in corporate financial and general management at major corporations and nonprofit organizations. She holds an MBA and is also the author of Rx for Business: Qualitivity.

Book preview

Rχ FOR RETIREMENT

Rχ FOR RETIREMENT

BOOMER’S GUIDE TO MEMOIR WRITING

2015 by Sandra W. Evans

First Edition

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publishers, except for brief quotations used in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Rx Publishers

Arizona

ISBN: 978-0977776146 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-0977776153 (pbk)

CONTENTS

1.   Introduction-Living Legacy

2.   My Destiny

3.   My Legacy

4.   My Family and Friends

5.   My Education

6.   My Vocation and Avocation

7.   My Travels

8.   My Sports, Hobbies & Other Activities

9.   My Awards & Achievements

10. My Choices

11. My Challenges

12. My Memoir

13. My Genealogy

14. Conclusion-Living Legacy

Exhibit 1: Workbook

About the Author

Socrates

In Plato,

Apology, 38

1

Imagine turning back the hands of time, stepping into an imaginary ship and slowly sailing along a parallel path of your life. This is a journey that only you can take because it encompasses your life. As any life well lived deserves notice, the treasure chest that makes up your life should be documented by you for posterity purposes and perhaps for your own peace of mind.

Some of you may have a secret fear about exposing your life for everyone to see. This is completely normal, as the prospect is intimidating for everyone. Others may have a mild curiosity and are willing to give it a try. Some of you may find yourself driven to uncover more and more. You are fascinated at the prospect of documenting your life. Whether you are fearful, mildly anxious or genuinely curious, you will end the process in the same way. You will have your life at your fingertips to appreciate. This is an exciting journey because you will be able to glimpse the content of your life--birth, family, friends, education, work, finances, successes, relationships, pleasures and losses. In the end you will recognize that your life is important to you, your family, friends and colleagues.

Many of us take for granted that everyone knows about our many good deeds and accomplishments. You may think that your friends, family, and colleagues could without hesitation reel off any number of notable actions and deeds over the span of your life. In truth, except for the rich and famous, their very limited perceptions may totally surprise you. If you do not document your life, your family and friends may never know about your college years and military experience, family life, friends, fields of expertise, career ups and downs, jobs and job promotions and achievements. They will never know all the places that you have lived and your travel experiences. Most importantly, the culmination of your private and public life may actually go unnoticed. So it is up to you to capture your life on paper to ensure that it is not forgotten.

As you collect all your information, you will find it relaxing to shut out the rest of the world while your memories flood to the surface of your brain. Then, you will feel energized at the prospect of actually having all this information at your fingertips. It can be a totally liberating experience to wake up each morning and view all the information that you collected over the previous days.

Destiny

It is advantageous to begin your journey by examining your destiny. Whether you believe destiny happens by chance, choice or some divine intervention, your journey will have greater meaning if you define your destiny and examine how your life unfolded while fulfilling your destiny. This will provide the basis for your life and your life’s work. When you examine who you are, you are actually answering the philosophical question of the purpose and significance of your life. You will learn how destiny is the driving force in your life. Think of your life as three concentric circles called the Ring of Life, representing every aspect of your life. The outermost circle is called the Wheel of Life, representing your family, friends, education, military service, career, awards, achievements and your body, mind and spirit. The inner circle is called the Circle of Life, representing your impact as helper, educator, caregiver, creator, performer or leader. Destiny is located in the center, as it is the driving force in your life

Figure 1-1: Ring of Life

Destiny plays a major role in your life, as it is the source of your wisdom but also the source of many obstacles along the path of your life. Therefore, defining