We started talking about Question 1, since several attendees are getting close to retirement. Several people said they have been thinking about prioritizing the rest of their lives, perhaps including an easier lifestyle than the demands that are being placed on them in their current jobs. Another participant said she wished she had crunched the numbers when she partially retired, to see what her decisions would actually mean in terms of income and expenses. Still, another task is figuring out what she really wants/needs to do from now on, since she's in her 60's.
Someone talked about taking joy in the simple things more now, instead of thinking about climbing Mt. Everest, he's putting more focus on enjoying the things that are close at hand, like just thoroughly enjoying his morning coffee. Another person commented on how infrequently he gives himself time to just think about his life and what is most satisfying for him, and to write it down to see what he may want to do in the future.
Several people said that since we cannot accomplish everything we might like to accomplish, it's wise to focus on the things that mean the most. For one person, that means focusing on connections, for another it was focusing on the seeking itself, and for another it was focusing on the meaning in his life. We even discussed the meaning of the word meaning, deciding it relates to the depth or intensity or richness of one's life.
Someone talked about how later in life, some people just give up, get depressed and stop living. He wants to treat life as a grand adventure, to keep seeking and even to wonder with his last breath what it's going to be like when he dies. That for him will mean that he is living fully.
Finally someone mentioned Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning, where black-and-white thinking is less developed, and one moves into being comfortable with more grays as our moral reasoning becomes more mature.
(Thanks to Pam Chambers for taking notes during the discussion!)
(This video was reviewed by Bob McGarey)
Feel free to come and share your own personal insights sometime; the Saturday Night Video and Discussions here in Austin, Texas are a lot of fun and fascinating. (They're free, too.) Here are the questions the group came up with, based on the personal growth themes in the movie: