Life Reimagined: Finding Your 'What's Next?'

By Tamara Lytle

Jill Johnson-Martin thought she was being ridiculous when, working through an AARP program called Life Reimagined, she wrote down what she really wanted to do in life: to fly.

But the training from the program stayed with her when she saw a news story about a wind tunnel called iFLY that allows people to simulate skydiving. She corralled her sons, who were graduating from high school and college, and slipped on a flight suit and goggles.

“I was really soaring. I could feel myself flying,” she said of the exhilarating adventure.

Now Johnson-Martin, from Great Bridge in the Chesapeake area, is facilitating Life Reimagined workshops. She’s one of several guides who will offer 75 sessions, called Checkups, in Virginia this year, according to Brian Jacks, AARP associate state director.

The free 90-minute Checkups are offered in libraries, senior centers and churches to help people answer the question: What’s next?

“This is designed for folks considering what legacy they will leave, how they will spend their time in a purposeful way and how to accomplish things they may have always wanted to do and don’t know where to start,” Jacks said.

At the workshops, about 12 to 18 people gather and go through a workbook of questions to help them determine what they want to do and how they can achieve it.

Johnson-Martin, 58, like many participants, was in transition—to an empty nest—when she attended her first Checkup in April 2015.

Colleagues at the surgery center where she was a nurse assumed she would switch from part time to full time when her younger son headed to college. But she and her husband decided they could afford to let her try something else, so she is volunteering as a guide instead.

“I’m leading the charge into what my husband and I do after full-time jobs and the children are launched,” she said.

Both Johnson-Martin and guide Mary L. Brett Wright say it’s gratifying to see other people’s ideas blossom at workshops they’ve led.

“I enjoy working with people and I enjoy connecting them with resources that will help them,” said Brett Wright, 75, of Williamsburg.

Finding a new normal
Brett Wright said said she had an epiphany during the program, deciding that she needed to write a new book. She had already self-published two books under the pen name Mari L. Brett after years as a human resources director and pastoral counselor. In six months, she finished Embracing by Praying Hearts (Xulon Press), a book of poetry and short stories.

“Life Reimagined walks you right through what you’re going to do next and who the people are who are going to listen, support and encourage you,” she said. Without the program, “I would have wanted to do it and never done it. Life Reimagined inspires people to develop a new normal and do something they’ve always wanted to.”

Brett Wright’s workshops have encouraged people of all ages toward goals lofty and prosaic, from starting a business to cleaning out the garage.

A knitting enthusiast in one of Johnson-Martin’s workshops wanted to become more social, for instance. The program helped her realize she needed to get her vision and hearing corrected so she could socialize. And fellow participants jumped in with ideas on knitting groups she could join.

Another participant said she wanted to learn more about gardening, and the woman sitting next to her turned out to be a master gardener with ideas for her.

Johnson-Martin said Life Reimagined also led her to start telling friends and family that she wanted to lose 30 pounds. Using that approach, she kept the weight off.

“It’s helping people to see the possibilities in their own life,” Johnson-Martin said. “If there’s something they’ve always desired, there probably is a path there.”

Upcoming sessions will be listed at aarp.org/va. If you have teaching or facilitating experience and want to volunteer as a guide for the Life Reimagined program, contact Jacks at bjacks@aarp.org.

Learn more about the program at lifereimagined.org.

Tamara Lytle is a writer living in Vienna, Va.