I’m a type-A, high achiever. I am intelligent and disciplined. I work hard at tasks given and make things happen. And I want to let my (inner) bad-girl out! I play by the rules. I do what is expe…| retirementtransition
When I read the myth of Persephone, it resonated deeply. See my blog link to my goddess archetype understanding here;. I related to Persephone’s separation from her mother and subsequent personalit…| retirementtransition
4 posts published by patwdoyle11 during April 2022| retirementtransition
4 posts published by patwdoyle11 during August 2025| retirementtransition
I’ve been joking lately that, “Tenacity is my middle name” as I keep pushing forward on all the aspects of house recovery. Yet, my 2025 WOTY was Patience. Is it tenacity? Patience? A recent blurb on the etymology of patience made me look further into the nuance meaning of these words. Am I being patient? Tenacious? Persistent? … Continue reading Practice Patience. Be Persistent.| retirementtransition
As I look at the words in my morning journal the past few months, my emotional healing challenge is obvious: Shattered and scattered. Disheartened. Anxiously waiting. Slogging through the mud. Hard to get out of bed. I am learning to live in a world that spins on while mine feels like it has stopped. Other’s lives … Continue reading My Inner Fight Continues| retirementtransition
This week continued my emotional healing process. With no forward motion yet on the house recovery, the emotional healing is definitely feeling up and down. There’s been multiple times where my inn…| retirementtransition
This blog post continues the “series of 2” on abandonment with a surprise third post. After reading my recent blog posts about abandonment (see links here and here), a friend encouraged…| retirementtransition
In the early days of my retirement, I read about the concept of morning pages in Julia Camerson’s The Artist Way. In the way of many things in retirement, I “tried it on.” It stuck. I’ve been an avid morning journal writer ever since. My morning journal time has become almost necessary to my well-being … Continue reading Stop the Broken Record| retirementtransition
Time abundance was something I was enjoying about retirement. Without a must-do job taking up both mind-space and physical time, there seemed to be time to do so many things – clubs, gardening, re…| retirementtransition
Winter is almost over here, although this week it’s still a bit chilly for Florida. Nothing like the Arctic Blast much of the USA is facing, but cool enough in the morning that makes the emergency …| retirementtransition
In my retirement transition journey, I’ve explored the area of positive psychology in a number of different ways. First, early on in my retirement, I intentionally tried to shift from being a crit…| retirementtransition
I crave security. It’s one of my core values. I want to feel safe and have a sense of control over my life. It plays out in plans, to-do lists, accomplishment lists, creating routines, and staying …| retirementtransition
I love lists. I’ve been contemplating crafting another book that lists things (in words) that impacted my retirement journey. I recently saw a number of A to Z taking stock posts, which is a form…| retirementtransition
3 posts published by patwdoyle11 during July 2025| retirementtransition
Synchronicity continues to amaze me and in the past few weeks it was all about self-care. Perhaps the Universe was telling me what I needed to notice more for my own emotional healing? First, I was inspired by a blog post from everydayGyaan (link here ) to look at what self-care practices did I engage … Continue reading Noticing What I Need| retirementtransition
It’s hard to believe that I’m celebrating 10 years of writing a blog. [Yes, that also means I’ve been retired for over 10 years.] The blogging world has shifted in the past 10 years; many bloggers …| retirementtransition
I have chosen RELEASE as my 2020 Word-of-the-Year. For me a WOTY is my focus area for the year. In past year’s my words included JOY (which helped me embrace practicing positivity), SOAR (which s…| retirementtransition
I’m not sure if my current struggle with anger is due to being in emotional healing from the trauma of losing our home and most of our possessions or if it is something I’ve always struggled with. Maybe the current struggle is because my normal way to deal with anger is suppression…and suppression is definitely … Continue reading Boundaries and Anger| retirementtransition
I read a number of other mid-life bloggers and often find inspiration in their words. Many of them do an end of the month update on what they have been doing. Similar to a previous blog post,, Deb…| retirementtransition
3 posts published by patwdoyle11 during March 2024| retirementtransition
3 posts published by patwdoyle11 during June 2025| retirementtransition
One of the elements I love about retirement is the ability to set up my days to align with my retirement lifestyle vision, which is based on my values and hopefully my natural inclinations and strengths. These past months have been a blur and I felt the need to relook at where I’m spending my … Continue reading A Review of My Time| retirementtransition
Comments on my blog posts, whether actually on my blog comments, on Facebook, or in person, really help me think differently! I thank my readers for giving me new perspectives and pushing my thinki…| retirementtransition
I’ve always been the good girl. The one who “meets or exceeds expectations” in corporate speak. I believe in doing the right thing. I play by the rules; I don’t make waves. I accommodate other’s ne…| retirementtransition
This blog post shares continued insights from exploring childhood abandonment. See first post here. As I explored the area of childhood abandonment, common defense coping mechanisms were discussed.…| retirementtransition
Back in winter, when I was stuck on what to write for a blog, I used a technique I’ve read other bloggers use, a “Taking Stock” approach, using the letters in winter for the individual words (link …| retirementtransition
Retirement often does not go as originally planned. There can be surprise health issues with the mindset and lifestyle changes that result from that significant life impact. There are choices to m…| retirementtransition
When I was working, I found it exciting to manage multiple projects simultaneously. I had juggling multiple balls down to an art. Those project management skills are needed again and unfortunately …| retirementtransition
It’s been a few years since I choose a Word of the Year (WOTY) to focus my year. I’ve had success with this concept in the past. My first ever, and very successful, WOTY was JOY in 2016 (link here…| retirementtransition
It is hard to believe it is 3 months since the first hurricane hit our home. The emotional recovery (me) and the physical recovery (the house) are on very different tracks! On the emotional (…| retirementtransition
To misquote Shakespeare, what exactly do I name this thing I’m dealing with – this aftermath of my life-quake.. Is it grief and mourning for a major loss? Is it natural disaster trauma and a…| retirementtransition
A warning: This blog post is a tangent, sharing insights from my current exploration into feminist writing. If this type of information is not of interest to you, I’ll be back to more “retirement …| retirementtransition
I began active journaling early in my retirement after reading about Morning Pages from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. That book is her original one on the topic, which I find the best for …| retirementtransition
One of the continuing challenges for me in retirement has been creating and maintaining connections/friendships. I’ve stated before that when I left full-time working, I lost 80% of my daily …| retirementtransition
I’m beginning to believe I have a distorted vision of friendship and that the “perfect picture of female friendship” is a just a fantasy. The BFF from childhood or high-school, who remains your BFF…| retirementtransition
This blog talks about creating a Life Possibilities List that will become your source of inspiration – to help bring clarity to what you want in your life (Life Plan), to create a daily/weekl…| retirementtransition
I have not picked a WOTY (Word of the Year) for a number of years, but put serious thought into doing one again for 2024. I enjoy reading what words others pick and why. I enjoy watchin…| retirementtransition
Thanks to a wonderful Find-Your-Word-of-the-Year 5-day process from susannahconway.com I was able to do some fun self-discovery work as I identified my word-of-the-year. I went into the process thi…| retirementtransition
A warning: This blog post continues this series based on my current exploration into feminist writing. If this type of information is not of interest to you, I’ll return to more “retirement transit…| retirementtransition
As part of writing my book, Retirement Transition (link here), I created a 7-Domain Framework for a Retirement Lifestyle. These domains were seven areas to think about holistically as one moved int…| retirementtransition
Building a life in retirement required me to think about things beside work. In my book Retirement Transition – An Innovative Approach (link here to Amazon purchase), I created a holistic Life Doma…| retirementtransition
Recently, a newly retired acquaintance commented how she feels bad that she doesn’t want to travel in retirement as that’s what seems to be expected. Unfortunately, the expectations for retirement…| retirementtransition
As I began moving from full-time, compensated employment to something else I realized I needed to refresh myself on managing through change. Retirement is a major life transition, probably one of t…| retirementtransition
I started to title this blog “Mid-summer” until I realized (thanks, Google) that mid-summer is an Olde English term referencing the summer solstice festival in June. The midpoint of summer is more…| retirementtransition
A blogger I followed for a number of years announced her retirement from blogging and, in fact, retirement from almost all use of social media. Over the years, I have seen a number of bloggers leav…| retirementtransition
I’ve created a number of new routines since retirement. Hubby’s recent knee replacement surgery disrupted a number of them. I began to wonder, were my new routines a new life rhythm or were they a…| retirementtransition
I am a huge proponent of To-Do Lists. I get stressed if there’s not a list of things for me to do, even if it’s all just possibilities. If it’s not written down on a list, I totally forget about it…| retirementtransition
I read an article the other day that had me wondering about retirement again. The article was about the positive side of flunking retirement! The article’s research (link here) indicated that, “Onl…| retirementtransition
Back in January, I contemplated a Word of the Year choice (link to post here). Over the years, I’ve used a WOTY a few times to really help me shift mindset. The years I choose Joy, Soar, Release …| retirementtransition
I feel like I am becoming jaded. After we went to the Florida Strawberry Festival, I even said, “Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt”. And yes, I did buy the t-shirt. However, I could have s…| retirementtransition
When one hears the phrase “Living a Life of Leisure” it often brings a sense of over-indulgence, selfishness, lack of responsibility, having no life purpose, or simply wasting time. Maybe that’s ju…| retirementtransition
It is often amazing to me when synchronicity happens. Of course, the first time a message is coming at me, it is easy to ignore. The second occurrence, I wonder, “Is that a message coming thr…| retirementtransition
Early in retirement I found the idea of 52 New Things (find that blog link here – from June 2018!) and implemented it. Combined with my idea of Possibilities List (original link here – from …| retirementtransition
Habits. I’ve been seeing random quotes about habits recently. It’s always intriguing to me when a repeat message shows up. What is the Universe trying to tell me about habits? Here’s two that st…| retirementtransition
When I retired, I didn’t think I had any hobbies or many outside of work interests. Being a workaholic had me working too many hours and then off-work hours, still being in the mental space o…| retirementtransition
