“Hard times have driven many to pause, take stock, and chart a new course for the second half of their lives”.

Yes, that description included me, and became my mantra for this blog site:  Sharon O’Dell ver. 5.1 is just that, my blog-ography of me having to reinvent myself for a new second half of my life.

Bob Buford wrote an article about this subject on November 13, 2009 in BusinessWeek Magazine.  It was somewhat of an affirmation to me – hey!  I am not in this lifeboat alone!  Sometimes that awareness is hard to come by, because this economic tragedy we are all experiencing leaves many of us feeling isolated.  The truth is, as I stated in my post on Sundy, 11/22/09, that this is a new paradigm shift in the U.S. labor market.  It’s definitely not going away.

Bob reflects what I found to be true – this pause gives one time to reflect on our greatest strengths.  Because we ARE re-inveting ourselves, we can think about what we care about most, and what we would like to do to make a difference in our world.  We can think back about what we excelled at, what we didn’t like, where we have been, and where we want to go.  Then he gives you THREE hard and fast rules:

1. Get Clear

2. Get Free

3. Get Going!

This examination of my life is actually what made me choose to reinvest in myself and go back to College at 51 years of age!  Many of my peers think it’s crazy to take on college loan debt at this stage of my life – I should be retiring in 13-15 years.  No!  I have no plans for that.  What I found during my self examination was that I was at a point in my life that I wanted to learn more, absorb new ideas like a sponge and make a new contribution to my world.  After all, I have been a serial entrepreneur for 23 years.  My love in life is taking an idea and making it a real, money-making business.  The fun in that for me is hiring people to make it work, sharing the wealth and watching people grow to heights they never imagined they could in developing a career.

I have a Gen Y daughter.  She began college to earn a dual degree (Japanese Language and Intl Business), and thanks to the economy and a twist of ill-fate, was denied residency after having lived and gone to school for almost three years out of state.  She ended up, much to her dismay, being one of the many boomerang kids that are forced to go back home and re-evaluate everything they had planned for themselves.  With tons of college loan debt already piled on her (and me for that matter), she womaned-up and re-enrolled in something she had been playing with for ten years and is now on an accelerated track to get her Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Web Design and Development.  Her new husband, seeing a similar fate, enrolled in a Bachelor’s of Science for Game Design.  This was not their original goal – but it’s their current goal and will keep them busy during a time of real strife in this country – busy learning new skills that will lead them to something else productive and wonderful.  I am sure that my daughter will invest further in herself and finish her Japanese language courses – which are the first love of her life.  My son-in-law, an avid gamer and one of those guys in an MMPORG that you can learn from, is likely on a direct path to what he loves, too.

So, we are a household of full time college students at this point in all our lives.  Staying busy, and getting just enough living expenses from college loans to make ends meet most of the time.  It’s a good way to spend the recession if you have no other way to find work.  What many people do not realize is that you can borrow not just for the tuition, but for the entire  ”Cost of Attendance”.  The “COA” also includes books and supplies, and living expenses.  Not much, but enough to get by if you co-habitate with other wage earners or students and pool funds on a limited budget!

I am set to graduate in 2012 with my Masters Degree in Internet Marketing.  They are set to graduate in 2013 with their respective Bachelor’s Degrees in Web Design and Development and Game Design.  Depending on how the economy is faring, I may return to the job market, or I may re-enroll to get a Graduate Degree or a second Masters Degree and graduate with them in 2013.  Only time will tell.

The first task was to move off the beach – that is a VERY expensive lifestyle that was wonderful in it’s time, but I saw things coming that were ugly and we got out of there in early 2008.  Moved slightly inland to a MUCH smaller, older house in a well established neighborhood – definitely downsized from the 3/3 waterfront condo we had grown accustomed to.

Yes, it’s hard living on “poverty level” income.  There are NO extras – ever.  We all got rid of our perks we had become accustomed to and pared down to the extreme bare minimum – we did lease returns on all our fancy cars (The Caddy CTS, EXT, Chevy SSR – gone!)  Even poor little Matilda (The VW) got sold off to help pay bills because she was worth a lot back when gas was nearly $4 a gallon in the fall of 2008.

Now we share a 1995 Ford Explorer, which runs well and gets us from point A to B.  We don’t go anywhere we don’t have to go.  We use Farmers Markets, Walmart, and BOGO deals at the grocery stores.  We ask for generic meds ONLY and shop extensively for the ones that have no generic to find the best price possible.  In these times, it takes up to an hour in the grocery store, walking the aisles to see what is on sale that might be combined into a meal for the night.  I think I spent about 400% more time shopping now – the days of just dropping stuff  into the cart without thinking is over!  We eat a lot of tacos, spaghetti, hot dogs and hamburgers – and our meals generally focus on meat that is less than $3 per pound (try finding THAT anywhere now).  When we splurge on “dinner out” its for $1 double cheeseburgers at Burger King or the 49/69 cent burgers at McDonalds – but no fries or drinks, we either buy a bag of Ore Ida fries at the grocery store or have some store brand chips on hand, and use our own 2 liter store brand soda or water!  We still splurge on air conditioning (we hate the humidity of Fl) but when we can finally shut it off, we end up with a few extra bucks that can be put into hair styles or a rare night out at the movies for the kids.

We are the fortunate ones. With Thanksgiving and the Holidays drawing nearer, we are focused now on finding ways to help those less fortunate than we are – and are spending the time being VERY thankful for what we have.  Despite the hardships, I believe that these times will make us stronger as Americans.  We will re-learn the value of a $1 and how hard we really do have to work for it.  We will start saving again and invest in tangibles, we won’t take things for granted like we used to.  Most of all, we will come together for each other, in a BIG WAY.

So, in celebration of Thanksgiving, we will be out picking oranges and grapefruit off the big trees in our backyard.  They are full twice in the season – once now and again in Jan.  We will keep some for ourselves and then call the food pantries and use that 95 Explorer to deliver boxes and boxes of fresh fruit to those who need it most!  Then, we will begin our Christmas effort to make sure that we try to help every kid have a great Christmas by taking 10% of the “nothing budget” we have set aside, and carefully shopping for quality new toys we can donate.  After all, Christmas is about GIVING and this year we need to GIVE BIG so we know that we did our part to the highest level possible.

Maybe the presents under the tree will be few and far between this year, but instead we will share our shopping stories and the toys we chose and what kid we were thinking of at the time we made the purchase.  After all, the most fun I have had every year since the first time my parents gave me allowance, was the shopping for gifts.  When you have the least to spend, and spend your time instead, you can find the biggest treasures ever!

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and family, with much love!

Bob Buford’s article can be found in Business Week.  Bob is a cable TV entrepreneur and author of the best-selling book Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance. He can be reached through his Web site, www.halftime.org .