Retirement – Life Reinspired

The Real vs. The Ideal

Sabrina Roblin — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 16:27:08 +0000

There is always a gap between the life we’re living and the life we want to create. It’s what inspires us to change, grow, and make New Year’s resolutions. Did you know that 80% of New Year’s resolutions fall away by February? How are the resolutions you made at the beginning of the month going for you? Are you still engaged in them?

If your answer is no, you’re in good company and there are at least two good reasons why.

First is, with the best of intentions, we make resolutions without addressing our internal landscape – what we believe, our perspectives. We fail to address these and create a compelling vision to inspire our action.

The second is that we try to do it alone. We fail to create the support and accountability we need to be successful.

I’m sure you probably know that successful athletes not only have a compelling vision, but they also have a coach as well as other support team members. It’s what we need to be successful in our own lives as well. Without them we fall back into our old habits, and nothing changes.

Hiring a good coach is one of the best things you can do to move forward on your New Year’s resolutions and be supported in narrowing that gap on the real vs. the ideal in your life.

Persist in your resolutions. Create your compelling vision and be held accountable to it. Get started, by scheduling a free Life Reinspired strategy session to experience the benefits of coaching and learn more.

Sabrina Roblin, CPCC, a former executive and co-founder of Life Reinspired, is happily enjoying her best chapter of life. She now helps others do the same. Schedule a free Life Reinspired Strategy Session or email info@lifereinspired.com to learn more.

Embrace the ‘D’ word for better living

Sabrina Roblin — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 23:24:52 +0000

If your reaction to any mention of the dreaded ‘D’ word- death, is dismissal or denial, and if you want to stop reading and click out to something different, you’re in good company. I had a near death experience in my teens, have a will and health directive, have worked as a chaplain in a hospital, and yet I still live at times as though I’m not going to die. Even with the knowledge and experience I have, I often feel as though that final chapter doesn’t apply to me. As terrifying and painful as this life can be at times, it’s still my life and I value it and who and what I love about it deeply. When the time comes, it will be hard to let it go. Although denial is a normal reaction, I invite you to stay and keep reading, as embracing death and educating yourself about it can enrich life and be a gift to your loved ones.

“Perhaps the fact of life most conducive to living fully as a person is an honest awareness and acceptance of death.” – Leo Buscaglia

Facing our mortality and having the important conversations about death and dying with loved ones takes courage. It’s important to embrace courage and have them BEFORE a health crisis, while we’re still healthy. It’s a gift to yourself and your loved ones so that in the midst of a crisis and impending loss, they can rest in the knowing of what to do to honor your values and your wishes.

Where to start?

We die in the character in which we’ve lived, so live now with purpose – contribute to something greater than yourself.
Cultivate your relationships – let your loved ones know how much they mean to you.
Cherish life and all that is good each day.
Answer the following questions and share the answers with your loved ones

What are your fears? (We often fear loss of independence and suffering before death more than death itself).

What tradeoffs are you willing to make to try to stop progression of a disease and or effects of a critical injury? What are you willing and not willing to endure?

If you are critically injured or ill, do you want extreme measures to be taken in the hospital to keep you alive at all costs or not?

Do you prefer to die at home with hospice care and your loved ones around you?

Do you want to donate organs and tissues?

Do you have a health directive that outlines your wishes and has assigned someone you trust with power of attorney for health care if you’re unable to speak for yourself?

What do you believe about death and the afterlife and how does that support you or not?

We won’t have control over how and when we die, but if we have the courage to prepare well, we can increase the chances of being the author of a better death experience for ourselves and our loved ones.

For those who want to engage more with this topic I recommend, The Five Invitations: What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, by Frank Ostaseski. And as always, I’m here for a conversation, coaching, and spiritual guidance.

Assumptions and Expectations Can Be Relationship Killers

Sabrina Roblin — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 21:31:02 +0000

The title of this month’s blog sounds dramatic, and yet it’s true. Assumptions and expectations about a person’s beliefs and behavior can kill a relationship over time, especially when they are unspoken.

Example assumptions and expectations include:

Now that we have a grandchild, you will want to have them at home during the week for a few hours each day just like I will because you love them as much as I do.
Now that I’m retired and home all the time, you’ll want to spend every day with me because I want to spend every day with you. If you don’t, I’ll feel hurt and rejected.
When I get home, you’ll want to hear about everything I did during my day and be totally present and interested in what I have to say. If you’re not, it means you don’t care about me.
Because you’re my best friend you’ll want to talk with me on the phone once a week for at least an hour. Because I want that, you’ll want that too and be available for it.

These are just a few that can trip us up. The judgement, disappointment, resentment, and anger they can engender become blocks to love and connection.

Conversation that is open and curious to name and explore them is so important, especially for a couple going through a major life change – retirement from a career, an illness, a change in finances or home, or the birth of a grandchild. It is an opportunity to create understanding and design how you want to live individually and together in the relationship.

Relationships are essential to our well-being and are the most important of the five pillars to a fulfilling life. We dream of growing old with our mates and dear friends. By the time we’ve reached the second half of life, we don’t need research to tell us that they are the source of both our greatest pleasures and deepest pains. Navigating them well makes a huge difference in the level of fulfillment and satisfaction we experience in our lives.

Set aside undisturbed time to sit down as a couple or with a best friend. Be as curious about exploring the assumptions and expectations as you would a different country and culture with its customs and beliefs. Then create some agreements about how you’ll find common ground and honor each other. It will reinvigorate your relationship and create the space for more love, joy, understanding and fun.

Rest & Play are Essential for Well-Being

Sabrina Roblin — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 20:52:42 +0000

My father was a restauranteur with a strong work ethic. He worked long hours in a stressful and demanding career as a renowned chef. He was completely dedicated to his restaurant and his craft, yet every summer he handed the reins to his kitchen staff and took six weeks off at our small family cabin in the mountains to flyfish, rest and enjoy the natural beauty. I would join him as part of my summer vacation. It gave me some of my most treasured childhood memories of flyfishing with him, wading aimlessly in creeks, tracking the sun and the stars, looking for wildflowers, and playing cards. There was no TV. I remember the comfort of the wood stove being fired up in the morning, the smell of fresh trout cooking in butter, lazing in the hammock under the pine trees, and trying to catch crickets in the afternoon as they guaranteed a trout on the line.

Those summers were some of my best teachers and healers. They informed my life and taught me the essential values of rest, play, and time spent in nature. They restored my spirit and optimism. I would return to the new school year ready to engage in learning and creative projects.

Just normal life is stressful and challenging. The times we’re in are unprecedented, driving up stress levels to new heights, making the need for rest and play that much more essential for our health and well-being.

So, take time this summer to recreate your favorite summer memories and create some new ones. Unplug and allow yourself rest, play and laughter. Pleasure is one of the five P’s, a foundational pillar of a balanced, fulfilling, and ‘Reinspired’ life.

Sabrina Roblin, CPCC, a former executive and founder of Life Reinspired, is happily enjoying her best chapter of life. She now helps others do the same. Schedule a free Life Reinspired Strategy Session or email info@lifereinspired.com.

Rediscover Your Purpose in a New Form

Sabrina Roblin — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 20:17:02 +0000

At the end of March I was interviewed by Richard Eisenberg of MarketWatch for his column, The View From Unretirement. One of his questions was why people are lost after their career ends, to the point that they shrink in their lives and don’t move on. My answer was that we get our identity and self-worth so tied up in our careers, we feel lost and irrelevant without it. We mistake the career for our identity rather than a way to express ourselves in the world. We think our work was our purpose and that without it we no longer have one. This points to the importance of purpose which is one of the five pillars of my Life Reinspired work.

David Brooks writes about purpose in his book, The Second Mountain, which is one of my favorite reads for the 3rd act of life. “If you know what your purpose is, you can handle the setbacks” (p.30). Without purpose you can flounder in a sense of loss.

Re-reading The Second Mountain has been part of my recent study of joy. I’ve read several books on the topic. Guess what’s mentioned in each one as something important to a joyful life…purpose. Purpose brings us joy, and when we look at what brings us joy, we can find our purpose.

All this is a reminder of the core value of purpose in our lives – the potential loss of it when a career ends and the importance of rediscovering it in a new form.

Retiring from a career is an opportunity for self-discovery, to reprioritize and redesign life for more joy and meaning. Rediscover your purpose in a new form. Take time to reflect, explore and redesign your life around answers to the following questions:

What’s my best life?
What brings me joy?
What do I believe in?
What do I look forward to each day?

Purpose can be as simple and sweet as time with grandchildren or volunteering in your community, and as grand as being part of a world-changing endeavor. It’s up to you!

The Power of a Question

Sabrina Roblin — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 21:55:58 +0000

Transitions can be stressful, especially when leaving a successful career for the next chapter. The uncertainty of the times we’re in adds an additional layer of anxiety to the process. Lots of questions come up – Who will I be without my career? Will I become irrelevant? Will my colleagues keep in touch? Will I be OK financially?

Leaving my career was a tougher transition for me than I expected. I thought the freedom and time to play would bring me joy. I didn’t realize that the loss of purpose, structure, colleagues, and my executive role would throw me for a loop. It’s what inspired me to develop the Life Reinspired work of coaching people to their next best chapter. I’ve found that asking the right kind of questions can make all the difference in how the next chapter unfolds.

If you are either in or facing a major life transition, here are some questions to ask yourself:

What am I learning about myself? Who am I becoming?
What’s important to me/gives meaning to my life?
How do I want to contribute to others in my next phase of life?
What and who will support me through this transition?

Exploring the answers to these questions and others will help you find your true North and create your next best chapter of life in a way that is aligned with who you truly are.

Be kind to yourself. Transitions can be both scary and times of meaningful growth and discovery. Embrace the adventure and remember, you don’t have to do it alone. Coaching can help shepherd the process.

Nature – our greatest healing source

Sabrina Roblin — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 22:15:10 +0000

Spending time in nature has been a life-long blessing. As a child my father took me fly-fishing on clear streams in mountain meadows, and I rode horseback into the wilderness near our summer cabin. Growing up, I hiked Mt. Tam, walked on the local beaches, and went downhill skiing in the winter. As I had a challenging home life, all that time in nature was a lifesaver, literally. No matter how stressed I was, I knew I had a way to recover through time in nature. As an adult, I went on a number of guided nature vigils. Each one gave me an even deeper appreciation of the healing power and magical beauty of nature. All these experiences are what drew me to Sun Valley, Idaho where the wilderness is my back yard. The beauty and regular outdoor activity keep me healthy and in a positive, grateful mindset.

Now we have scientific research to back up experience. Being in nature, or even viewing scenes of nature, reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. According to one Finnish study, spending just 15 minutes in nature helped people feel psychologically restored. In a University of Michigan Study, people who took a walk in nature performed 20% better on a memory test.

Prosperity is one of the pillars of the Life Reinspired work I do with my clients. As prosperity of body, mind and spirit (not just finances) is essential to well-being, and nature is our greatest healing resource, I want to share my learning about presence and connection with nature. Join my 5-day Facebook live sessions July 6-10 at 7am MT for a way to experience nature that you’ll be able to integrate into the rest of your life. Find out more here!

Sabrina Roblin, CPCC is a former executive, founder of Life Reinspired, and a coach, trainer and speaker who is passionate about helping her clients create their next chapter of life as their best yet. To learn more or schedule a complimentary Life Reinspired Strategy Session, contact Sabrina at: info@lifereinspired.com or www.lifereinspired.com.

I’m Failing, Now What?

Sabrina Roblin — Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:18:22 +0000

Just because I coach, train and empower others, doesn’t mean I don’t struggle at times too. When I’m looking into the gap between where I am and where I want to be in a part of my life, I feel discouraged and can even drop into an “I’m failing” mindset. When I’m there, it’s hard to get out and it affects all aspects of my life. I lose connection to my passion, purpose, and clarity about the next action to take. I know I need help in those moments and I’m not always skillful in the way I ask. It can look like anger or frustration with a person or circumstance in my life. Can you relate?

What is a gap in your life that is challenging you? I have a couple of openings in my practice and am offering a summer special until June 21^st. Reply to this email or use the link below to schedule a Life Reinspired conversation for some listening, wisdom, action steps, and if needed a kick in the pants, that will get you on the track to closing that gap.

In the meantime, here are some helpful tips for dealing with those difficult feelings of failing:

Acknowledge the failure. Without this there’s no movement toward success.
Be kind to yourself – this is not a time for self-recrimination.
Allow yourself to feel the difficult feelings – sadness, frustration, discouragement, regret. Remember we fail, we are not failures. There’s a big difference.
Ask, “What is there for me …to learn? …to heal? …to do?” Then take action.
Reach out and ask for help. It’s a leadership skill, not a weakness.

No life is lived without failure and heartbreak, and it can be a needed step toward success.

Are you ready to close the gap?

Sabrina Roblin, CPCC is a retired executive, founder of Life Reinspired, and a coach, trainer and speaker who is happily enjoying her best chapter of life. She now helps others do the same.
To learn more or schedule a complimentary Life Reinspired Strategy Session, contact Sabrina at: info@lifereinspired.com or www.lifereinspired.com.

Surprising Truth about Launching Your Next Chapter

Sabrina Roblin — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 00:21:19 +0000

Set yourself up for success With These 5 Pillars

Whether you’re grieving the loss of your career due to the pandemic or you want to take the reins and start a new chapter in your life, you might be thinking you need to wait until life returns to normal before you can begin to even think about what’s next. Surprisingly, the opposite is true.

Now is actually an ideal time to start!

Disruption, challenges and change inspire creativity, purpose and new beginnings. If you do the groundwork now, as life and the economy reopen, you’ll be ready to blossom into your next chapter and make it your best yet. The freedoms, activities, work and connections to loved ones that you may have recently lost will help you clarify what is most important in your life and help to point you in the direction of your next chapter. By the way, this is not to minimize the need for grieving the losses you experience. It’s important to make the space to embrace the emotions of grief and to reach out for help when needed.

I started my next chapter at 50+ the hard way, and you don’t have to. When I left my long-time successful corporate career, I was executive of an international training company in the San Francisco Bay Area. My love of outdoor adventure inspired a move to the mountains of Sun Valley, Idaho. I was looking forward to the play and freedom, thinking they were going to fill my life with new meaning. I quickly found myself grieving the purpose, people, challenge and structure of my corporate life and realized that just play and freedom were not going to cut it. It took me two years of struggling and research to figure out what it would take to create a meaningful and fulfilling life chapter, and another year of work to make it real.

If only I knew then, what I know now, I could have prepared well before I launched and not had to suffer through a multi-year transition.

Now I know it takes reflection, intention, planning and action to clarify and build these five essential life pillars to create a life that is wildly fulfilling:

People – Who are the loved ones, friends, and colleagues you want by your side for the journey forward?

Purpose – What is a form of work that is important and meaningful to you that utilizes the talents, skills and experience you most enjoy in service of something you care about?

Pleasure – This is where your bucket list fits in. What are the day-to-day activities you enjoy most? What are the getaways you want to plan and look forward to in the years ahead?

Place – What type of home do you want in your next chapter? Do you want a garden? Do you want to downsize or change geographies?

Prosperity –This is both a material and a spiritual topic, especially in the second half of life. In addition to managing your finances, what are the practices you enjoy that support your health and wellbeing? What are the spiritual beliefs and practices that are meaningful to you?

How to begin? Set aside reflection time to start the process and keep a journal of your thoughts and ideas. Reflect and recapture dreams you haven’t had the time to realize in the past and begin to build the bridge to what’s next.

Download a free workbook for this process at: The 5 Essential Pillars to Your Next Chapter.

The process of exploring, clarifying and taking action steps in these five pillars of your life take time, intention and attention. Dive in with a perspective of discovery and adventure. Allow the process to create a sense of joy and purpose in your life. The vision of your next chapter will start to take shape and you’ll be inspired to take action to make it real.

Sabrina Roblin, CPCC is a retired executive, founder of Life Reinspired, is happily enjoying her best chapter of life. She now helps others do the same. To learn more contact Sabrina at: info@lifereinspired.com at www.lifereinspired.com.

Creating a Meaningful Life Amidst Chaos and Change

Sabrina Roblin — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 23:31:27 +0000

As I look around at our society and the news it seems the level of chaos and change is intensifying – the fires in the west, civil unrest, the political divide and the pandemic. I’m finding, to manage anxiety, reactivity and despair, it’s more important than ever to walk the talk of my Life Reinspired program. I’m finding it works, even in our high stress life circumstances, which is affirming and inspires me to share it more than ever.

There are several components or keys to a meaningful and fulfilling life. Did you know that research shows important and meaningful relationships are more important to longevity and well-being than quitting smoking? The importance of people in your life is just one of these keys of the program. The pandemic has disconnected us in ways we’ve never experienced before. I’m certainly feeling it.

Living alone during this time, I’m especially grateful to my two kitties, Iris and Ivy. They provide entertainment, good snuggles, warmth and companionship. Also, I make it a practice to reach out to friends and family by phone or video conference on a regular basis for connection and a conversation. I’m fortunate enough to live in the mountains where I can get out for a hike with a friend. I can’t hug them, but I can enjoy our time together in the beauty of the outdoors, so I make it a point to get out with a friend at least once a week. That way I break the isolation of the pandemic, and I have a greater sense of well-being afterwards.

I find that the little things like my neighbor bringing in my garbage can from the end of the driveway after the garbage truck has been by makes a huge difference to my day and my feeling of being connected in the community. It’s a simple kindness that is a beacon of light amidst the chaos of our times. We are tribal creatures, so staying connected is critical.

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”

– Coretta Scott King

Upcoming Workshop:

Learn about the importance of people in your life and more in my upcoming free online training September 20th at 2pm PT called, The Keys to Creating a Meaningful and Fulfilling Next Chapter. I hope you’ll join me! Click to Register.

Sabrina Roblin, CPCC is Co-Founder of Life Reinspired, offering coaching and training programs for successful Baby Boomers contemplating a meaningful next chapter in life. Sabrina is an experienced executive, mentor, trainer, and coach. She has worked for organizations that include Wells Fargo Bank, Broderbund Software, and The Coaches Training Institute. Schedule a conversation!