What can I give you today?

Welcome to my digital home and my first post. I am so excited to share my ideas with you and I hope to learn from you as well.  Please, make yourself comfortable.

When I retired from NASA in 2017 I received lots of advice on life after NASA.  One person advised me to learn the word “no,” as in “no thank you” to this or that offer.  I didn’t adhere to his counsel totally, but it helped me focus on what I wanted to do. The advice of my NASA colleague Paul really sank in though.  He said, “Donald, you need three things to be a successful retiree: 1) you have to have a social life; 2) you have to have structure, and, most importantly, 3) you have to have a purpose.”

Profound!  Upon reflection, I was good for half of the three.  Fortunately, I am married to someone who handles social affairs for a living and she’s the expert at home too.  Social life? Check. On the flip side was structure. It quickly dawned on me that in the past 5 years at NASA, I got spoiled with help from people who kept structure in my life, namely my calendar, to-do’s and appointments.  Now that I am on my own, I need to “discipline-up” a bit on structure. I was rusty. Structure? Needs work.

Having purpose was the big kahuna.  I had thought about projects I wanted to do but not the higher-level purpose that serves as the container for those projects and future endeavors.  In the quiet of a meditation practice, it came to me. My purpose now is “to give.” I have a lot to give and that includes giving to myself. I’ll say more about this in future posts, including the distinction between receiving and giving as I see it.  Purpose? Feels right.

My new book, “Manners will take you where brains and money won’t” is one of my gifts.  I intend that it will provide exceptional value to you, well beyond what it will cost you to buy it.  (I know gifts imply “no cost,” so please forgive the incomplete analogy. I want to give you something to think about and use.)  After 35 years at NASA, numerous trainings inside and outside of NASA, plus the timeless wisdom of my mom, I feel that I have something to give people, especially younger people beginning their career journey.  Spoiler alert: success is an illusion and the wrong pursuit and, as the book’s title says, brains and money are insufficient to take you where you really want to go. I look forward to sharing my ideas with you and learning from you as well.