RetirementDrive

Welcome to RetirementDrive - the new retirement revolution is here.

In days gone by retirement meant at 65 we stop working full time and retire on an old age pension from the state and if we are lucky, we will have saved enough to have a private pension scheme so we can enjoy life’s luxuries a little more.

The average age of death is roughly 81 which means after working 45 plus years we have 16 years of doing the things we want to do then we die. No wonder over the last 40 years each generation has looked at this wonderful prospect and thought - stuff that, why work for 45 plus years and then have such a short time free to do as you wish, often and quite frequently in poorer health than when in your forties.

Things change in the way we consider retirement

Financial institutions and governments peddled the same message - save for your retirement with a pension fund. So, lots of people did and it partially worked but many also lost out because pension funds did not always perform as promised. Also, people invested in company pensions schemes and if the company folded their pension also folded. Fortunately, in the 80/90s things began to change, predominantly with the housing market, but not exclusively and people found other ways to not only invest for later life but also started to look at diversity of careers.

People have started to look at their lifestyle choices and happiness as well as the financial need to have enough money to live comfortably. Today, many employers are allowing flexible working and allowing older people to work less days or job share or take their pension and then do contract work.They can include carrying on working, possibly part time or in a completely different job, or using hobbies, vocational work or other means to add value, enjoyment and income in retirement. Many people through their lives build value in their home and other property and use that as a ‘pension’. Some do part time work after stopping their main job. Most people today will need some form of private pension scheme or additional income which can come from a number of sources to bolster their money in retirement.

RetirementDrive

Welcome to RetirementDrive - the new retirement revolution is here.

People have realised the old-fashioned way of retiring isn’t such a good prospect so change it, do something different. It does not need to be the way it was. The prospect of relying on the state for money.

Here are some initial thoughts about retirement. GO!

Here are some facts and stats  about retirement. GO!

Planning for your retirement (or even thinking about it!) when you’re young isn’t easy.  GO!

Our thoughts about retirement are almost pre-programmed – see why and how. GO!

When you leave school it can seem that things are pre-planned – it doesn’t have to be this way. GO!

There are choices you can make when you are relatively young that will improve your retirement as well as the rest of your working life.  GO!

If there’s something you really enjoy doing, it’s possible you could make money from this AND improve your retirement.  GO!

Where can you go to get the best advice about retirement?   GO!

See some ways you can save money for your retirement  GO!

See some other slightly different ways you can create your own retirement fund.   GO!

See some hard facts from people who are considering retirement.   GO!

See a video describing three things that will make you happy in retirement   GO!

If you’re a visitor to our site you can join and download information, assess your own health and create your own action plans, and even contribute to our site.  GO!

We have a video and a testimonial. GO!

We have some info on the next steps you can take. GO!

We have some additional information and stuff on this subject. GO!

Some Initial Thoughts About Retirement

retirement scooter

The retirement revolution is here - it doesn't have to the way it was

People have realised the old-fashioned way of retiring isn’t such a good prospect so why not change it, do something different. It does not need to be the way it was. The prospect of relying on the state for money is risky and outdated.

retirement and careers

Older life revolution

Why not forget the word retirement and call it older life freedom. Choosing a life you want to live and DOING IT!!

Facts About Retirement

years
1

according to NHS England we only enjoy on average 10 years of good health in retirement

years
10

Life expectancy in 2020 is 79 for male and 82.9 for female, a decrease for both on 2018

years
1

The average age of retirement was 59 according to a recent survey by Sunlife; this is money.co.uk

working UK population
1 %

Of the total working population of UK, 1.2 million people over 65 are still working and this is on the increase

Retirement changes
33%

33 per cent of people aged over 55 have made changes to their retirement plans as a result of the pandemic, and those workers are delaying leaving the workplace by an average of two and a half years. This is money.co.uk

UK employment growth
50%

those of us aged 65-plus are likely to be responsible for at least 50% of UK employment growth in the next 10 years. Aviva

Hate your job?
55%

55% Of people hate their jobs and 35% are actively seeking a career change; zippia

Life expectatncy after retirement
76%

If you retire at 65, you have a 76 percent chance of living ten more years, a 38 percent chance of living 20 more years, and a 5 percent chance of living another 30 years.

Things to know before retirement

Tina and Norm provide some top tips to plan your time to retire, things ‘We Wished We Knew Before Retirement’.  In the years leading up to when you retire, we recommend discussing ideas that will shape your early retirement years. If you are in a relationship have a truly honest discussion about what you each want from retirement.

The problem is that planning for something in our twenties (when it might all change) isn’t easy

The problem with pensions and saying; start saving now for your retirement and live a fantastic life when you stop work. The problem is every 7 years or so our lives change, we change, our mentality often changes based upon life experience; The desire/vision at 30 to live abroad and play golf all day, relax with family and friends, enjoy life. Life often can change our vision of the future.

Should you quit your job?

Should you quit your job and start a business? Joe Rogan & Garyvee talks about how to know when to quit your job and how to actually do what you love. This will be the most life changing speech you will see. It will motivate you to quit your job at the right time.

The old thinking on life

Life can be very structured and as we grow up our opportunities are forged often by the life we lead and our upbringing. You might say how can I decide on a career and retirement when I am 16. It's difficult and not everyone gets it right. Some change in later life to a different career and it's no big deal but many successful, famous people will say they always wanted to do their chosen career. The key is it must be vocational and flexible. You must be in a position when you are older to make changes to your career and work patterns.

We get trapped in the workplace with social trappings

Often what happens is we start work, we earn money, we start to spend, we start to borrow, we spend some more and then get a mortgage and then get a partner and then get a baby and we have to work to pay them everything. Simple.

It all starts at the beginning when we leave school

If your parents are professionals, it is often very likely that he offspring will be professionals. Dependent on your background and insight leads to the career choices you might take before entering the workplace, even before university.

We don’t stop and think at that time I want a job that I would really enjoy. In fact, many students when choosing their options for university don’t choose a degree course that will further their career and talking to many thousand year two students what do you want to do when you leave university, the answer is I don’t know.

How many years can I expect to remain healthy in retirement?

According to government statistics, on average we live 20 years in retirement [broad statement. Actually 16 years is correct] During this period we can expect typically to enjoy half this time in health. The other half is poor health. The Government is 2018 set up an initiative to get people in retirement to have healthier lives and introduced an 8-point plan. But often you could argue that staying healthy in retirement is great but if the person has spent a lifetime in a high impact sport or drank alcohol for the British championship the proverbial horse has already bolted through the gate and across the field.

So if half of your retirement is currently in poor health due to life choices and no matter what you do it cannot make up the difference then you need to tell everyone else half your age to take more care.

So what’s the answer; Well its start earlier

older couple enjoying retirement

The key to success is to start younger and forget retirement at all

According to government statistics, on average we live 20 years in retirement (broad statement. Actually 16 years is correct). During this period we can expect typically to enjoy half this time in good health. The other half is in poor health. The Government in 2018 set up an initiative to get people in retirement to have healthier lives and introduced an 8-point plan. But often you could argue that staying healthy in retirement is great, but if the person has spent a lifetime in a high impact sport or drank alcohol for the British championship the proverbial horse has already bolted through the gate and across the field.

So if half of your retirement is currently in poor health due to life choices and no matter what you do it cannot make up the difference then you need to tell everyone else half your age to take more care.

So what’s the answer; Well it’s starting earlier.

Do I enjoy my work? Will it sustain my happiness for years to come? Can I change my role in the future and move into new areas? Can I reduce my hours and still retain some of the benefits I enjoyed? Will my work provide me with the drive and adrenalin kick I need in later life? If the answer is yes then you need to think about how you develop a financial portfolio around your future. It's no longer about working until a fixed age then retiring.

80 years of happy

This is a great video showing it’s possible to continue to be happy well into old age

choose a job you love

Make money from your hobby

Wouldn't it be great if you could enjoy your hobby and also make some money doing it? Although not every hobby lends itself to this, if you plan it properly it can work. You need to ensure it's marketable and has a big enough audience - you can read more by clicking the image.

You can learn how to make money from your passions and hobbies and how to turn them into a profitable career over time. Additionally, learn how to effectively market your brand in the digital era - the advent of social media platforms has rendered it easier than ever before in the digital era to monetize your passions and hobbies. There are ample ways in which hobbyists have been able to generate passive income streams from their passions and quit working their unfulfilling 9 to 5 jobs.

people working at computers

Where do I go to get the best advice? Sadly there isn’t anywhere

If you want financial advice for taking out a pension there are thousands of advisors out there but if you are wanting advice on the best things to do with your life, career, business, investment, choices etc then there isn’t one outlet. You can read and talk to people from all backgrounds of life. Doing the right thing and making the right choices not only takes time and planning but focus, planning and reviewing as circumstances change.

Lottery winning, pension fund, same job, are the lazy option and what the majority of humans go for. Its like losing weight. We all would love to take a pill and the fat disappears that’s why weight loss schemes make millions every year. The reality is there is no quick fix to losing weight you have to change your physical, food and lifestyle habits. Same as choosing what you do in your life.

piggy bank denoting saving

How can you save for retirement?

There are many ways to save for retirement – some have tax advantages, others score on flexibility. RetirementDrive is aimed at giving you information to decide what’s right for you – whatever stage of life you’re at . Which’s guide shows how to save at different stages of life. It may pay to consider:
Augment your state pension by paying additional NI contributions or deferring payment.
Pay into a personal pension – if your company matches your contribution then this is a great way to save – you get an extra 100% plus tax benefits – see the calculator below!

What types of traditional pensions schemes are there?

There are many different types of pension scheme available with many different options. You are always best to seek professional advice regarding these schemes from a qualified expert. These experts do get commission from the advice therefore its important to do your own homework as well. Don’t make quick decisions.

There are two types of private pension offered by the pension companies in our comparison, and we also look at workplace pensions.

A personal pension plan

When you appoint a pension company and they choose the funds you invest in or give you a limited set of options. The money is put into investments (such as shares) on your behalf by the pension provider.

Self-invested personal pension (SIPP)

With these, you choose where you invest your cash, so it’s a kind of ‘DIY’ method. There’s a large list of funds, shares and other assets to choose from – and you can even buy property with it.

If you don’t want to choose your own pension funds then speak to an independent financial adviser to talk about the best pension plans for you.

Workplace pensions

All employers now have to enrol their eligible employees into a workplace pensions scheme – unless they opt out. Eligible means UK based, not already enrolled, 22 or over (but under state pension age) and earning more than £10,00 a year (2019-20). This was introduced to encourage people to save for their retirement – the minimum amount you have to contribute is 5% from you, 3% from your employer AND the government give you tax relief on your contributions

There are some other things you might want to look at in the tabs below.

house

Alternative long term funding options for later life

Today there are so many options for generating income in older age that people may prefer. There isn’t a get rich quick option other than the lottery or you are one of life’s 0.1% JK Rowling/Ed Sheeran who went from rags to riches in a shot. Setting those fantasies aside. There are so many ways you can earn income in older age. Again, it depends on what your lifestyle will be in older age

Get a flexible career or business

When planning your future income think about the character you are and the roles you have had. Think about the ideal job that would make you happy. Think about flexibility –  can I do this job from anywhere and from any country??

Can I build a business that no matter what generates income even when I am not there?
Think of all the work that is done around the world electronically and you could be anywhere on the globe as long as you have access to the internet.

older person sad

Retirement transitions in later life - hard facts

As we said at the beginning - what we think we would like to do when we get older and the reality is sometimes totally different. It's our life journey and experience that determine this.

Here are some interesting lifestyle views of people retired or thinking or retiring;

  • 1 in 5 UK adults found it difficult to adjust to retirement
  • 56% of people didn’t do anything to prepare for older age living
  • 32% of potential retirees worry about losing social connections
  • 24% fear losing purpose in life
  • 33% worry about getting bored
  • 17% fear feeling lonely when they stop work
  • Recent survey found 24.1% of retirees were widowed and the divorce rates for over 65s have been booking the falling divorce trend with an increase of 35%
  • About 3.8 million older people live alone. 70% are women
  • 30% of the retired people indicate they feel lonely
  • Between 2008 and 2031 the increase in the number of 65-74 years olds living alone will be 44% and the increase in those aged 75 plus living alone will be 38%
  • 20% of retired people are suffering with severe sight loss
  • 70% of people over 70 are suffering severe hearing loss
  • 46% of pension age adults are classed as having some form of disability this rises to 67% by 2040 according to Age Concern.
  • The proportion of people with multi-morbidities among those aged 65-74 is 46%. This proportion increases to 69% among those aged 85+
  • 1 in 14 people over the age of 65 (7%) and 1 in 6 people over the age of 80 have dementia (17%)
    Depression is the most common mental health problem among older adults; affecting 22% of men and 28% 0f women aged 65+
  • 1 in 5 over 65+ men and 1 in 10 women drink enough alcohol to harm themselves

Three things that will make you happy

Don’t wait for the 16 years of retirement to enjoy life, start planning in your thirties and forties not just money but a lifestyle, family, social, and wellbeing. It’s not complicated and as you can see people are just not doing it. Maybe it’s human nature as it’s not instant coffee and can be solved and worked at over a longer period of time, so people, therefore, will just continue drudging their way to work each day, and when the retirement revolution starts they won’t be in a position to do anything unless of course they win the lottery or inherit a financial estate.

Tom Hegna explains there are three things that will make you happy in retirement, two non-financial and one financial.

For visitors

Why don't you join us?

You can register to join us as a member, when you’ll be able to download our stuff and comment, or as a YouDriver when you’ll also be able to check your health and set up your own action plans to make some improvements.  If you’ve already registered, sign in below. Or let us know what you think.

Biggest mistakes in retirement

Don’t be afraid of retiring it’s just another stage of life.  Effective planning for finances and time management can help remove the fear of retirement. Tina and Norm enjoy retirement and have been lucky enough to travel to many beautiful places – see this video to find out how.

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
age quote for mark twain
Mark Twain
American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher

Next Steps

It doesn’t matter what stage  you’re at – it’s important to be the best you can be.  At the end of the day it’s about taking personal responsibility – You Drive!

It’s really your choice. You can find out more information about the subject, or see other institutions that can help by going to Support. There you will find organisations, training, coaching, self-help courses and other items to support your personal change. We have also started developing a panel of experts to provide info, advice, help and support. 

Get Support

There are times when you need some help to meet your aims –  a helping hand. That might be  an organisation that can provide you with some help,  some specialised information, a particular book or tool to help, or just getting some background reading material.

We have a lot of items which appear on our Drives and other pages, which you can go to by clicking on the picture or link.  Some contain affiliate links and we may receive a tiny commission for purchases made through these links.

If you know of anything which could help you or our other visitors then please click the button on the right, which will take you to a Contacts page where you contact us.

Experts

We are compiling a list of experts who can provide advice, help or specialised services.  You will be able to access these experts from anywhere on our site you see our ‘Experts’ symbol.  Click the green E to see what our Experts list will look like, with a couple of imaginary ‘experts’ added!

More Information

Scroll down to see more information on this Drive. 

If you register you can also download reports, white papers, quizzes and other collaterals.  We will never ask you for any financial information, and we’ll only send you the information you want. You can register for our site either above or in the footer below.  You can provide your own questions and experiences in order to help other members.  We only moderate for spam and inflammatory language – see our moderation policy.

If you’ve found this interesting, then please share it on social media.  Choose your network!

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More information

The Young Person’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career

Now What? is the essential guide for young people looking to find satisfying and successful work.  This book guides you through the difficult process of designing a career that gives you the best chance for both high-level success and satisfaction. 

Go to Amazon

Avoid Retirement and Stay Alive: The New Retirement Revolution

Checked your forehead lately?
See a use-by date?
No? Then why on earth are you worrying about retirement?
David Bogan and Keith Davies challenge you to turn everything you’ve been conditioned to think about retirement on its head.

Invest in your physical, mental, and emotional health and plan for an occupation that will keep going as long as you do.

Go to Amazon

How To Make Money From Your Passions And Hobbies

How To Make Money From Your Passions And Hobbies, How To Turn Your Passions And Hobbies Into A Profitable Career, And How To Effectively Market Your Brand In The Digital Era.

This includes making money and marketing using social media.

Go to Amazon

Make money from home

Imagine if you could start a business from home, make money doing what you love, and still have time for the other amazing things in your life. Imagine working half the hours and earning double the income.

Go to Amazon

100 Steps to Financial Independence

100 Steps to Financial Independence: The Definitive Roadmap to Achieving Your Financial Dreams

This is loaded with checklists, action steps, and surprisingly simple strategies to finally gain control of your financial life. Learn all you need to know about expenses, debt, savings, income, retirement, investing, financial protection.


Go to Amazon

Planning for retirement: Your guide to financial freedom

A Nobel prize winner in Economic Sciences once stated that retirement planning was the nastiest, hardest problem in finance. Unknowns relating to life expectancy, future investment returns, and inflation add surprising complexity to a deceptively simple question: “Can I afford to retire now and enjoy my desired lifestyle with confidence that I won’t run out of money before I die?”

Go to Amazon

Ultimate Retirement Bucket List

The: 101 Fun Things to Do, Exciting Everyday Activities, and Once-in-a-Lifetime Experiences for a Healthier, Happier Third Act

Retirement can be daunting – how can you make your time as meaningful as possible? Now is the perfect opportunity to focus on YOU and what’s important.


Go to Amazon

Bolder

Carl Honoré explores the cultural, medical and technological trends that will help us make the most of our longer lives. He shows us that the time has come to cast off prejudices and blur the lines of what is possible at every age.


Go to Amazon

The Retirement Coloring Book | Swear Edition

For Adults | A Totally Relatable & Hilarious Curse Word Color Book For Retirement: Funny Gifts For Retirement | Appreciation Gift For Retired Men & Women Paperback

WHO KNEW RETIREMENT COULD BE MORE STRESSFUL THAN WORK!

Need a funny gift that is actually fun and relaxing?

Discover the hottest trend with this best-selling title.


Go to Amazon

Living Together After Retirement:

or, There’s a Spouse in the House

A lighter look at life after retirement: more together-time than you ever dreamt of! Join “Ten Cats” cartoonist Graham Harrop in a behind-the-scenes peek at the trials and tribulations of the newly retired.


Go to Amazon

In which country can people expect to have the longest time in retirement?

Guardian article on having a long and healthy retirement

Saga provide a list of 10 ways to make money in retirement

Sixty + Me provide 60 creative ways of making money in retirement

This is Money shows 7 crafty ways of boosting income without paying increased tax

The Money Advice Service have some excellent information on retirement options

The Money Advice Service also give a lot of information on saving for retirement

Mental Health Foundation make some good points about ageing and mental health

What works wellbeing have a briefing on retirement and wellbeing that will surprise you – click here to download it.

What works wellbeing also have a factsheet which says ‘While working is good for wellbeing, retiring is better -click here to download it.

Hargreaves Lansdown have a guide to self-invested personal pensions – click here to download it.

The Government have a guide to the new State Pension – click here to download it.

Stuff you might want to do with retirement

Now you’ve read about retirement and hopefully come to some conclusions, you might want to make a bit of a statement.  Have a look at some stuff below we think has some humour value!  We may make pennies on commission, but that’s not the point really.  Click on the image to see more details.

Rude Mug
Time Mug
Crap Mug
1976 Tee-shirt
Retired Tee-shirt
Retired Tote bag

All areas of health are interlinked

You need to scroll down to see all the info in this popup – sorry for going on so much!

Find your initial focus

You might think that physical, financial and mental health are quite separate, and for some people they are. However, often a problem in one area has a knock-on effect on others. Losing your job can lead to anxiety and depression, which can turn you to drink and impact your health.

You might have a severe issue in one area but that can lead to problems in other areas, and the people treating you for the first problem won’t be equipped to deal with these linked issues.

For example, doctors and nurses can treat you for a physical problem but can’t advise you about your job or finances.  Nor for the anxiety that comes with it, apart from prescribing some drugs, which might or might not be the best solution.

We encourage you to take a holistic view – we look at all areas and offer support across the whole spectrum.

health areas interlinked

Even this view of health is simplistic, as you’ll discover later if you go down that route.  You might want to consider overall health, or wellness or wellbeing, which include additional types of health, such as occupational health (how you are in your job).   Then there’s happiness and quality of life – how do these fit?

If you’re interested in that, click the link here to see more information.

To close this box and go back click the X at the top or just click outside the box

Make money from home

Imagine if you could start a business from home, make money doing what you love, and still have time for the other amazing things in your life. Imagine working half the hours and earning double the income.

Go to Amazon

Avoid Retirement and Stay Alive: The New Retirement Revolution

Checked your forehead lately?
See a use-by date?
No? Then why on earth are you worrying about retirement?
David Bogan and Keith Davies challenge you to turn everything you’ve been conditioned to think about retirement on its head.

Invest in your physical, mental, and emotional health and plan for an occupation that will keep going as long as you do.

Go to Amazon

The Young Person’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career

Now What? is the essential guide for young people looking to find satisfying and successful work.  This book guides you through the difficult process of designing a career that gives you the best chance for both high-level success and satisfaction. 

Go to Amazon

How To Make Money From Your Passions And Hobbies

How To Make Money From Your Passions And Hobbies, How To Turn Your Passions And Hobbies Into A Profitable Career, And How To Effectively Market Your Brand In The Digital Era.

This includes making money and marketing using social media.

Go to Amazon

100 Steps to Financial Independence

100 Steps to Financial Independence: The Definitive Roadmap to Achieving Your Financial Dreams

This is loaded with checklists, action steps, and surprisingly simple strategies to finally gain control of your financial life. Learn all you need to know about expenses, debt, savings, income, retirement, investing, financial protection.


Go to Amazon

Planning for retirement: Your guide to financial freedom

A Nobel prize winner in Economic Sciences once stated that retirement planning was the nastiest, hardest problem in finance. Unknowns relating to life expectancy, future investment returns, and inflation add surprising complexity to a deceptively simple question: “Can I afford to retire now and enjoy my desired lifestyle with confidence that I won’t run out of money before I die?”

Go to Amazon

Bolder

Carl Honoré explores the cultural, medical and technological trends that will help us make the most of our longer lives. He shows us that the time has come to cast off prejudices and blur the lines of what is possible at every age.


Go to Amazon

What Day is Today? Who cares I’m Retired

Retirement Adult Coloring Book: A Funny Retirement Gifts for Women and Men | Adult Coloring Book for Retired Dad, Mom, Couples, Friends, Boss and Coworkers. Paperback

WHO KNEW RETIREMENT COULD BE MORE STRESSFUL THAN WORK!

HUMOROUS RETIREMENT GAG GIFT IDEAS COLORING BOOKS FOR GROWN-UPS

This Adult Coloring Book contains 25 Hilarious Retirement Puns, Jokes and Artworks Coloring Pages to help you to get through the day.

This funny adult colouring book is a great way to relax and makes the perfect novelty gift for grownups
Go to Amazon

retirement colouring book

Health Areas in Domains

You need to scroll down to see all the info in this popup – sorry for going on so much!

Domains

We break down the overall concept of health or wellness into ‘bite-sized chunks’ that we can actually do something about.  The first level we call health domains. 

We like the Life of Wellness site and we have chosen the following domains.

1. Emotional Wellness: Awareness and acceptance of feelings
2. Spiritual Wellness: A search for meaning and purpose
3. Intellectual Wellness: Recognition of your creativity, knowledge and skills
4. Physical Wellness: Need for physical activity and balanced nutrition
5. Environmental Wellness: Positive awareness and impact on your environment
6. Financial Wellness: Debt reduction, cash flow balance or financial future planning
7. Occupational Wellness: Personal achievement and enrichment from your career
8. Social Wellness: Contribution to your community

Health Areas

Within each domain, we have included a number of health areas. These are specific issues that you can tackle.  Within each health area, e.g. Depression, we have built additional information and exercises which you can do to help in the area. You can create your own Action Plan to address this area, and see

Emotional: Anxiety, Compassion Fatigue, Depression, Gambling, Laughter, Narcissistic, Personality Disorder, Sleep, Stress

Environmental: Environmental Issues, Greenness

Financial: Debt, Family Finance, Financial Planning, Financial Wellness

Intellectual: IQ, Personality, Procrastination

Occupational: Jobs for Different Personality Types, Retirement Income, Work Life Balance

Physical: Alcohol, Disabilities, Dizziness, Drugs, Fitness, Food Preferences, General Health, Healthy Ageing, Illness, Nutrition, Sleep Apnea, Smoking

Social: Communication Skills, Communication Styles, Domestic Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Love Partnerships, Mental Abuse, Parenting Styles, Sexual Addiction

Spiritual: Are You Sensitive, Mystical Guidance, Spirituality

Each health area has supporting information and its own questionnaire.

To close this box and go back click the X at the top or just click outside the box

Understand Health

You need to scroll down to see all the info in this popup – sorry for going on so much!

Physical, financial and mental health

One definition of health is:

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. 

The NHS define health as: ‘We use a broad definition of health that encompasses both physical and mental health, as well as wellbeing. This means we are not only interested in whether or not people are ill or have a health condition, but also in how healthy and well they are.’

We believe we also have to consider financial health, as this can easily impact physical and mental health. Click the button to see an example of how these are connected.

 It gets more complicated…

What is Health? How about Wellness, Wellbeing or Happiness?

The Active Wellbeing Society (TAWS) define Health as a state of the overall mental and physical state of a person; the absence of disease. They define Wellbeing or wellness as a way of life that aims to enhance well-being and refers to a more holistic whole-of-life experience which also includes emotional and spiritual aspects of life.  We expand on this definition of health to include financial health and mental health, to make it synonymous with wellbeing or wellness.  

To close this box and go back click the X at the top or just click outside the box

Values, Attitudes and Beliefs

You need to scroll down to see all the info in this popup – sorry for going on so much!

We all have our beliefs, attitudes and values – these have developed throughout our life based on who we are and what we have done. Let’s look at what these are.

The University of Reading explain: “People’s values, beliefs and attitudes are formed and bonded over time through the influences of family, friends, society and life experiences. So, by the time you’re an adult, you can hold very definite views on just about everything with a sense of “no one is going to change my mind”.

The combination of your personal values, beliefs and attitudes are your moral principles that guide you in life and affect your behaviour. However, your views can wildly differ to others and in an institution such as a school, these beliefs may be counter to the values of the school, child development or indeed the law.” 

Let’s look more closely at the differences between beliefs, attitudes and values.

Beliefs

These come from real experiences – we think our beliefs are based on reality, but in fact our beliefs colour our experiences; also, an original experience e.g. when we were a child is not the same as what’s happening now. Beliefs can be moral, religious or cultural and reflect who we are. They can be rational (‘it gets colder in winter’) or irrational (‘I am never going to make something of myself’).

Attitudes

This is an immediate belief or disposition about something specific. It is a recurring group of beliefs and behaviours aimed at specific groups, people, ideas or objects. They will normally be positive or negative and we will always behave that way to the target group. Examples of attitudes include confidence (I can or can’t do something), grateful (I an entitled to / grateful for XXX) and cheerful (I am generally happy / miserable).

Values

These are things (principles or qualities) that we hold in high regard or consider to be worthwhile or right / wrong. They are formed by a belief related to the worth of something – an idea or behaviour. Some values are common (e.g. family comes first, the value of friendship) or cultural (which the whole community have – see video at Study.com here)

The theory

Links to Wikipedia

Expectancy Value Theory suggests you balance your beliefs about something with the value you attach to it. The Theory of Reasoned Action suggests that beliefs and evaluation about behavioural outcomes determine attitudes, and intentions lead directly to behaviour.

Beliefs

Expressions of confidence – can change over time

Attitudes

Learned predispositions to something – are subject to change

Values

Ideals that guide our behaviour – Generally long lasting and often need life changing experience to change

Iceberg demonstrating implicit and explicit bias – from Owlcation

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Assess your overall health using a health questionnaire

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At YouDrive we try and help people improve their health. We use ‘health’ but we understand there are other terms such as wellbeing or even happiness that reflect how we are doing in our lives – if you’re interested in the different definitions and ideas see our page on the subject.

We want to help whether you have a particular problem – physical, financial or mental – or if you just want to improve some specific part of your life or just make some improvements overall.

You’d be surprised, but there has been a serious amount of scientific work done in this area over the last twenty years.

So first we allow you to assess your current health (or wellbeing, or happiness).  We do this by questionnaire.  Which one is determined by the type of person you are:

  1. You understand yourself well and want a quick overview of your health and wellness, and will drill down in any areas needing work
  2. You want to do a more detailed assessment and then focus on areas you’re already aware of
  3. You want to look at the whole situation in more detail across all the health domains.

By the way, we take your privacy seriously – we collect information that you choose to provide but we de-identify it as much as possible and will never share it with anyone without your explicit consent.

You can then drill down into some specific areas and there are more questionnaires to see your situation in these particular areas.  We provide you with specific information and refer you to other potential aspects of help. Our next step is to build a personalised action plan – for now we will make a suggestion for you to develop your own plan and then after a time you can see whether this has had a positive impact by retaking the test.

In future we will be engaging with medical and behavioural specialists to devise action plans for individual people with specific situations.

We have an overall questionnaire which you can complete which will assess your current state.

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Add your attitude to change - see how you view changes in your life

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Do you need to change?

No matter how healthy you are at the moment, the chances are that there are some areas you could improve. It may be that you have a real problem in one or more areas, and you would like to make some improvements.

At YouDrive we accept that there are many different degrees of ‘not wellness’ in a large number of different health areas, ranging from physical illness such as covid-19 through mental illness such as anxiety through to financial problems like debt.  We try and help where the problem ranges from ‘slight’ to quite bad’ – after this expert help and intervention may be needed.

However, especially in these times, we have to try and make these changes ourselves, possibly with some help from others, whether remotely or face to face.

The thing is, to make an improvement we have to change some things.

This involves changing our behaviour in some respects, and that’s not always easy.

Henry Ford, the creator of the assembly line, is quoted as saying “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”.  

henry ford

Another way of looking at this: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” – attributed to Albert Einstein.

Consequently we need to make some changes.  The problem is that we have already developed a lot of habits, some of which we need to break and replace by better ones.  Some of our bad habits have become entrenched, and the bad results they create in turn engender further bad habits to develop – in effect the bad habits can feed on themselves.

We need to understand how we can make changes and stick to them, and that’s what this part of your health profile is about.

It will involve some learning, through reading, some videos and some additional information and also seeing how you react to change currently.

It will also ask you to consider whether you feel you are in charge of your future, or whether you feel it’s all fate.

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Locus of Control

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  • We want to help people in all aspects of their health  – physical, financial and mental. We also provide detailed explanations of how overall health (or well-being) is measured.
  • We believe these things are often linked, so we try and address health holistically. We are building templates, questionnaires and exercises to help you identify what’s important to you.
  • We think people should try and take responsibility for  of their own health as much as they can.  See below for what that means.

People look at things differently.  Some people believe things happen to them, while others believe they can influence what happens to them. Technically this is called the ‘locus of control’.  People can have an Internal or external Locus of Control

So how do you see things?

Psychology Today have a 15 minute test which gives you a summary of your position you can buy the detailed results if you want to.

My Personality Test have a 10 minute test which gives you a summary.

People tend to take more responsibility (locus gets more internal) as they get older.  However, external isn’t always bad – for example if you are physically unable to do some things you can accept it and focus on the things you can do.  This American video explains the concept and gives examples of how this can affect relationships.

locus of control

Internal

  • More likely to take responsibility for actions
  • Tend to be less influenced by others

External

  • Blame outside forces for what happens
  • Don’t believe they can change their situation themselves

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See which domains you should address

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Having established that we use 8 domains, you need to understand which you should concentrate on.

The 8 are:

  • Emotional
  • Environmental
  • Financial
  • Intellectual
  • Occupational
  • Physical
  • Social
  • Spiritual

 

You can take a questionnaire, which scores you in each domain.  You can decide which domains you are strong in, and which you need to improve.

Another analysis shows which domains you should look at, but also which domains you want to look at.

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Health domains

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We break down the overall concept of health or wellness into ‘bite-sized chunks’ that we can actually do something about.  The first level we call health domains.

We like the Life of Wellness site and we have chosen the following domains.

1. Emotional Wellness: Awareness and acceptance of feelings
2. Spiritual Wellness: A search for meaning and purpose
3. Intellectual Wellness: Recognition of your creativity, knowledge and skills
4. Physical Wellness: Need for physical activity and balanced nutrition
5. Environmental Wellness: Positive awareness and impact on your environment
6. Financial Wellness: Debt reduction, cash flow balance or financial future planning
7. Occupational Wellness: Personal achievement and enrichment from your career
8. Social Wellness: Contribution to your community

wellness wheel

Health Areas

Within each domain, we have included a number of health areas. These are specific issues that you can tackle.  Within each health area, e.g. Depression, once you have subscribed we have built additional information and exercises which you can do to help in the area.

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A Butterfly Life: 4 Keys to More Happiness, Better Health and Letting Your True Self Shine

Times of change can be a challenge, no doubt! Whether it’s a relationship breakup, job loss, or being diagnosed with a serious health issue. Or you may WANT things to be different, but it feels a little scary or overwhelming. The butterfly reminds us change can be beautiful, even necessary, in order to realize our full potential and live our best life.