Now I’m in my early seventies, the perspective shifts a little. I have just a single mentoring client remaining, and all my ‘work’ is pro bono now, or voluntary to be less posh about it. I have expanded my Pro Bono page to reflect this.
It might be noticed that it’s all in the Health sector, and that’s because it’s where my interests and incentives lay. Volunteering is a two-way street where the volunteer gains something too; it might just be the satisfaction of contributing to the common good, or it might be knowledge relating to oneself.
In preparation for a mentoring conversation I thought about what are the big things that are important to me now, and I came up with the ‘three Fs’: Family; Fitness; Philanthropy. (Yes, I know, but it sounds like an ‘F’ :-). Family always comes first, and I imagine that’s true for most people. Maintenance of Fitness, mental and physical, is important at my age in order to do anything else. When in my 40s I would have had ‘make a difference in the world’ on this list; now through Philanthropy I try to help other people make a difference – locally through donations to Plymouth foodbank and energybank, and nationally through donations to homelessness and my work in the various health charities.