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Description
In this episode of Behind the Village Podcast we sit down with Mike Bailey, a lifelong learner who spent decades reinventing his working life, moving from grocery clerk and electrical apprentice to corrections officer and HR advisor before retiring into a second act as a full‑time photographer. Mike shares how he recognized when it was time for change, how he rebuilt confidence, and how photography gave him purpose; he explains his pre‑visualization approach to storytelling, the daily “do nothing” practice that reduced stress and sharpened focus, and offers practical advice on midlife career change, retiring into creative work, photography as therapy and income, overcoming self‑doubt, slow living, and balancing family and work.
Transcript
Please note that this transcript was made using AI and it may not be entirely accurate.
00;00;03;06 – 00;00;05;27
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You’re listening to the Behind the Village podcast,
00;00;06;19 – 00;00;11;25
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Where we invite you to join us on a journey to understand how to live a life worth living.
00;00;12;20 – 00;00;17;23
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Continuing on this trajectory, we have going about work and life and how everything fits together.
00;00;17;26 – 00;00;21;09
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We wanted to speak to someone who was in the retirement stage of life,
00;00;21;12 – 00;00;26;26
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who has been through many big changes and different challenges, and to see what perspective they could offer us
00;00;26;26 – 00;00;30;05
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That we can’t see from this stage of life that we’re in.
00;00;31;11 – 00;00;52;15
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Mike Bailey has an interesting past when it comes to his work life. Beginning with a part time job in his teen years at a grocery store. Mike became an electrical apprentice until he switched companies and worked for Uniroyal Making Conveyor belts, and eventually became part of the quality control team. Long shifts became tedious, and Mike decided to make another career switch.
00;00;52;17 – 00;00;59;12
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He applied to Beaver Creek Correctional Facility, where he began as a maintenance worker. Eventually working his way up to assistant warden.
00;00;59;24 – 00;01;07;26
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From there, he moved on to the Ministry of Community Safety Corrections as an HR advisor for 15 years before finding photography and retiring.
00;01;11;09 – 00;01;28;24
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I thought, okay, Mike. One day you will retire. What are you going to do when you retire? And so I thought, well, you know, probably photography. I like being out in the outdoors. And that’s how I got into to photography. And I thought, but I guess I should buy equipment now while I’m working because I’ll never be able to afford it.
00;01;28;26 – 00;01;50;18
Unknown
Yeah. When I retired. So that’s what I did. You know, all the extra money I put in the equipment and decided to try a photography. And then of course, people were saying, well, you should sell your work. Oh, I’m not that good, you know. And, so I started I started just, you know, like everybody else. I started at the farmers market and, at Otis Park.
00;01;50;20 – 00;02;09;00
Unknown
And I would sit back and listen to people rather than talk to them because I was like, you know, now I’m talking your ear off. And, I would listen to their comments and, and, so that’s how I, I kind of picked up and learned, I just, you know, self-taught, listened to people, kept their criticisms and and kept on going.
00;02;09;00 – 00;02;17;07
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And now I’m, I’m just loving life. I’m busy. I volunteer for too much. I don’t know how to say no.
00;02;17;07 – 00;02;32;24
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And, I get myself in over my head and, but, you know, life couldn’t be better right now. And I think if it wasn’t for, being willing to try all these different things, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
00;02;32;27 – 00;02;52;09
Unknown
You know, I think I, I see along, a lot of younger people saying, no, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to do that. I only want to do this. If you really don’t start too high. Like your ability to be flexible and working with people and speaking your mind without being boisterous, you’re not going to go anywhere.
00;02;52;09 – 00;03;00;10
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And if I hadn’t have taken these different chances, I don’t know what I’d be doing today. And so I have no regrets.
00;03;02;27 – 00;03;19;17
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What was made clear through our conversation was Mike’s willingness to try to try something new, to try something he’d never done before, to take a chance and trust himself and his knowledge to get him to the next point in life. One question I had was, how do you know when it’s time to make a change?
00;03;21;21 – 00;03;36;17
Unknown
The biggest thing I noticed and you know, and I’ll use corrections because it can be a negative environment, because, yes, you’re dealing with people and you’re trying to help them, but it’s always negative. Everybody has a complaint or you know, everybody.
00;03;36;21 – 00;04;04;05
Unknown
It’s poor me, poor me type thing. And as hard as you try, it almost seemed like, you could never be successful. And somebody and I realize now that’s wrong. But I think to answer your question, when I left there, it was because I was becoming somebody I didn’t like. And so I knew at that time, I’m not going to live my life like that.
00;04;04;08 – 00;04;29;08
Unknown
I didn’t like who I was becoming. I was becoming negative. I was becoming cynical. And I thought, that’s not me, and I’m not going to bring that home to my family. So I thought, it’s time for a change. I never left anything until I secured another, another job. But, that I just I just couldn’t take it when I was, you know, like, when I was working as electrician.
00;04;29;10 – 00;04;52;05
Unknown
I had to change because of family commitments. I couldn’t afford to be laid off. So there was a good reason there. When I left Uniroyal, I mean, it was a good paying job. That’s, you know, but I left there because I. I wanted to do something with my license, electrical I like I left there because there was an opportunity to work for the government.
00;04;52;08 – 00;04;55;11
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You know, I’m thinking ahead with family. They have benefits.
00;04;57;15 – 00;05;07;16
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Listening to Mike speak about all these things he had done in life. It started to feel like he had unlocked some secret to making it all happen. I wanted to know what that was.
00;05;09;20 – 00;05;26;09
Unknown
You know, I think it was sometimes not having enough confidence in myself. And, I had to overcome that. And there was, you know, so many things that, that job brought me out of my shell. It was like I was a a bit of an introvert, really.
00;05;26;09 – 00;05;47;10
Unknown
Even though I like people and I like listening to people, I was afraid to talk to them. And when you get into that position, sometimes things come out of the blue and you have to. And there was one, one incident to demonstrate that was, we brought in a no smoking policy for, for the whole institutions inside the buildings.
00;05;47;12 – 00;06;10;16
Unknown
And every institution was trying this. And we had a managers meeting in Kingston, which is our, you know, headquarters area. And the deputy warden at the time was supposed to come and have a conversation with all the other managers of the institutions about how the nonsmoking policy, how we implemented it and, how it was working and what wasn’t working.
00;06;10;18 – 00;06;30;22
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And she didn’t show up. So the warden says, Mike, you’re next in line up front and talk to them about smoking. Well, I had like five minutes just, you know, so, and I guess having to do that, it was like, oh, I don’t need to prepare a speech. I have the knowledge I can do this. And they did it.
00;06;30;22 – 00;06;56;27
Unknown
And it was sort of that was the confidence builder that said, okay, I can do lots of things that I don’t think I can do. I just have to explore it. Yeah, that’s something Jen and I actually talk about a lot is the idea, he likes to say the challenges the way. Yeah. You know, like stepping out of your comfort zone or even being pushed a little bit outside of it and not being afraid because I think we doubt ourselves, you know, more than we need to.
00;06;57;01 – 00;07;24;26
Unknown
That’s right, that’s right. And and the other thing that I, that I learned and this is in speaking and just like what you’re talking about is, you think that when you’re doing this in front of everybody, they know all about what it takes to run a podcast, what it takes to do this and and they don’t. And so the real truth is, you know, more than anybody else in the room because you’re the expert at what you’re doing now.
00;07;24;28 – 00;07;38;26
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You know, as I got older and you, you finally start to realize these things, as you know, you can really do whatever you want as long as you have the desire to do it and the dedication to learn and not be afraid of failure.
00;07;41;09 – 00;07;47;04
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So if self-confidence is the key, how did he manage to actually do these things day to day?
00;07;47;22 – 00;07;53;08
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What was it like for him at this stage? How did he and his wife navigate everything?
00;07;55;12 – 00;08;18;22
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many of us so long ago, I, I think our oldest now is 50, you know, but, I think the balance is, is a lot of times and this could be just a personal thing with me, but I think it happens to, to more and more people is, when you’re working you, it’s hard to turn off the 8 to 5 job.
00;08;18;25 – 00;08;39;18
Unknown
It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, because you always feel I got to do a little bit more. If I don’t do this a little bit more, they’ll think I’m not doing enough. And, I think that’s a common thought with a lot of people. And so you would do a little bit more, and you weren’t really recognized for it.
00;08;39;20 – 00;08;55;24
Unknown
It just you felt good for yourself because. Oh, I stayed an extra hour, and I did this. I don’t have to do it tomorrow. And I can say it’s done, but then tomorrow comes along and there’s another issue, so I think I’ll stay for an extra hour. But, you know, it might be an hour and 15 minutes.
00;08;55;24 – 00;09;22;21
Unknown
And before you know it, you’re getting up and you’re going to work early because it’s quiet and you get some work done and you’re staying a lot later because you still think that you’re not doing enough. And so then now it becomes, I’m up before the kids even go to school, and I’m leaving that responsibility to my wife, and then I’m staying late because I feel a real need to now.
00;09;22;28 – 00;09;37;14
Unknown
And I’m leaving that responsibility to my wife at the end of the day. And I’m, I’m I was missing a lot of the important times with the kids, so I had to put that back into perspective, too. And that was hard,
00;09;39;22 – 00;09;50;20
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After gaining an understanding of who he is and life up until now, I was interested in his take on photography and the beginnings of this creative endeavor. After he retired.
00;09;52;24 – 00;10;13;12
Unknown
I think when, when, when I started to do photography, it was for me. I just like to be out in the bush and take pictures and and of course, my wife still says today I’m glad you didn’t start photography until digital came out, because if we had to pay for all the pictures you done, we’d be broke and probably divorced.
00;10;13;15 – 00;10;34;17
Unknown
You know? And I’d say, yeah, yeah, I know if photography just hit the delete button then and and you’re done. But as I was doing this, and I kind of related it to work in a way of, of being able to explain to people and give them information that they weren’t aware of. They didn’t know anything about it.
00;10;34;17 – 00;11;04;18
Unknown
Right? That that’s just not their expertise. And so I took photography as another way of teaching people. And I don’t just go out and snap a picture and think that’s, you know, a photograph. I, I call it pre visualization. So before when I go out, I have an idea in the back of my head as to if I go out and take a picture of something, I don’t know what yet.
00;11;04;21 – 00;11;29;24
Unknown
What am I going to do with it. It at the end. And so that helped me in my process. Just like thinking through of somebody’s problem. How are you going to help them in the end? But when I take a picture, I have an end and an in mind as to what the picture will look like because of my familiarity with software, that I can do little things.
00;11;29;27 – 00;11;46;24
Unknown
Am I going to just put it on the internet and let people see it? Or do I want to print it? And if I’m going to print it, do I want to print it on a canvas? Do I want to print it on a paper? Because it all has a different effect in how you’re going to present that to somebody.
00;11;46;27 – 00;12;10;13
Unknown
And so a lot of times I will look for things that, there are ordinary things that you and I might go by every day and see. And it’s like, you know, if you were going down the road and you saw an old hand pump just sitting on a beat up or, well, on a broken down cabin in the background, you probably wouldn’t pay any attention to it.
00;12;10;15 – 00;12;28;27
Unknown
But I think there’s a story there. And so I try to go and I’ll take a picture of that pump in certain ways and with, you know, maybe the how old broken down house and the background and, but I might in my mind I might come home and I say, but it’s an old pump. It’s a rusty old pump.
00;12;28;29 – 00;12;58;13
Unknown
Who cares? But I try to present it in such a way that somebody might say, I wonder who pump that handle? I wonder what family said that? So that’s kind of my goal in all of my photography, is to make people think about what happened in the past. It’s like I did a whole series on doors, and it wasn’t just because they’re a nice colored doors, but it was always wonder what the story is when somebody walked through that door and then came back out again.
00;12;58;20 – 00;13;20;24
Unknown
So that’s I mean, I’m and I combine everything I know I’ve gone off topic here, but, when I combine in everything, it’s I want to show people things that you that are ordinary, but they’re not ordinary because we don’t see them anymore. There is a history there. There’s got to be a history of how that person even settled in that place, what they did with their house.
00;13;20;26 – 00;13;48;08
Unknown
And so I try to in some ways present that to people to make them think. Or maybe it’s a remember, maybe they grew up, on a actually like I’ve got a good example, I did a picture. It wasn’t it was just up on the side road. I went out one day was in the wintertime and and it had been snowing and I thought, oh, I’m going to get out and get some fresh snow on the ground and the, you know, the sun, blah, blah.
00;13;48;08 – 00;14;07;17
Unknown
Well, by the time I get out here, it’s only a couple streets back here in seven. It started to snow again, and I was going down the road is when I’m not going to get any, but I’m going to stay out anyway. And, there was a, an old barn and it had a swing hanging from a tree and then a brand new house over here.
00;14;07;17 – 00;14;26;18
Unknown
The old barn was all the old stone and and nice old window, but it was that swing that caught my eye because the snow was falling. And I stopped the car, and I got out and I took a picture of the barn. But the swing in this old tree was was what I really the subject. So I took a picture of that and I kind of liked it.
00;14;26;18 – 00;14;46;13
Unknown
And I thought, well, I’m going to, you know, I’ll put that on a canvas and see what happens at the markets and so on and so forth. Well, it turns out I was doing a solo up at, Creative Nomads, shortly after she had opened and I had it was I printed it big and there was an older gentleman.
00;14;46;15 – 00;15;03;09
Unknown
Actually, this is a very interesting story, I think. Anyway, there was an older gentleman that used to sit outside with another gentleman on the bench in front of Creative Nomads. I hung that picture and he came in to see it. He bought it right away. He said it reminded him of the swing he had when he was a kid.
00;15;03;09 – 00;15;26;14
Unknown
In his childhood. Wow. The story, I mean, and I thought, wow, this is really, really exciting because that’s what I was thinking. I was just a child. So, you know, I guess in that way I’m very proud because what I thought of when I took a picture of how I, I presented it was somebody’s memory that hung in their house.
00;15;26;17 – 00;15;47;28
Unknown
And it also loved art. It’s so it’s so fascinating. I like I love hearing you talk about that process and what you’re thinking and what you’re hoping people will do and interact with your work. And I think that may be true for all artists in various mediums, but, I love hearing about that is just fascinating. And I love, like, I saw your your doors.
00;15;48;01 – 00;16;06;26
Unknown
Oh, I love that series. And I’d like to hear that thought behind it. And then knowing that that’s what you were thinking is leaving that open to interpretation. Yeah. Other people, I think is so interesting and how that can connect us, you know, and connect you as the artist and them as the the people observing or experiencing the art.
00;16;06;28 – 00;16;32;05
Unknown
Well, and and sometimes it’s tough because I’m seeing the bigger picture. Like a lot of those doors were actually taken in an old barrio in Tucson, and that old burial, was actually falling apart. And I saw the old buildings. I just took the pictures of the doors. But that whole door, when I think about how old is this burial and this building, I mean, but what history has gone through those, those doors.
00;16;32;08 – 00;16;51;01
Unknown
And that’s why it was I sort of took that picture, those pictures, but because there was a story there hoping that there could be anywhere. But, you know, I think I called it the Story of Doors and, Yeah. And how many people, how many famous people might have walked through those doors back in those days when they were doing something?
00;16;51;01 – 00;16;53;06
Unknown
So hopefully that message comes out
00;16;55;16 – 00;17;03;02
Unknown
It sounded to me like Mike had achieved such success over his life, so I wanted to know what success meant to him and what he was proud of.
00;17;05;12 – 00;17;38;29
Unknown
if I, if I want to talk about success of success to me was I was happy in any job I did, I didn’t care what I was doing. And I think to me, success in your work makes for a happy life. Success at home. Seeing the kids grow up, I guess the kind of the way I was brought up, and being respectful to people and situations.
00;17;39;01 – 00;18;08;01
Unknown
I’m just so proud of our kids. Maybe because they’re a little bit like me, but no, I might have just been successful. No matter what I’ve been doing. No matter what kind of, you know, uncertainty there has been or, you know, health wise, I’ve always been very positive and looked at it. It’s a success no matter what.
00;18;08;03 – 00;18;33;01
Unknown
And one of my favorite sayings I used to tell my kids, because I practiced at myself, was, when you have an issue, don’t focus on the issue. Focus on the solution, and and they don’t say to they’ll say that to me, dad, what are you what are you upset about? Yeah. I’m bad. Bad. Well, dad, you always told us, don’t focus on the issue.
00;18;33;01 – 00;19;02;13
Unknown
Focus on a solution. And. And that I got you through it. And a lot of times, thinking like that and thinking positive was why I can be inventive. Why? I’m an artist. I look for the good in people. I look for the good and things. And when you find that it’s so much easier to resolve any situation and and when you help someone, when you are satisfied with something you’ve done, to me that’s success.
00;19;04;17 – 00;19;11;06
Unknown
As our conversation progressed, we got into the topics of how negativity affects us and the importance of taking time for ourselves.
00;19;13;21 – 00;19;31;14
Unknown
I try to watch a little bit of the news. I’m more interested in what’s happening locally, and you can’t help but kind of get involved in all. Yeah, but, you know, this is happening over, over there and this is happening south of the border and it starts to get you on. And both my wife and I would just, let’s go to the studio.
00;19;31;16 – 00;20;06;09
Unknown
Yeah. Right. And we come over here and we just do our thing, and it just everything goes away. Because you’re focusing on things you like to do. Yeah. And unfortunately, I think today’s generation doesn’t do that. No, they’ve never been taught to explore some kind of a craft or explore something you really like to do. And, I mean, there’s so much like, even, you know, when I think of our son loves to write, and so he does when he’s had enough, he just goes and he’ll write some story about who knows.
00;20;06;11 – 00;20;29;16
Unknown
And he doesn’t care if anybody reads it. He just. And that puts him in the Zen zone. Yeah. It’s so important. And sometimes you just want to have a bit of a, I call it potato time, where you’re not thinking you’re just a couch potato. And then the scrolling starts on the phone and then, you know, the input of the, you know, negativity and the this is happening, like you were saying, the south of the border and overseas.
00;20;29;16 – 00;20;57;23
Unknown
And you’re just like, okay, I gotta turn this off. Well, and you know, what I find interesting sometimes is, we’re we’ve just become that world of, like you said, scrolling. And I think I think my I’ll pick on the younger generation, but I think they’ve lost sight of how important it is to talk. And because you’ve got that in front of you, it’s so much easier to say nothing because I don’t know what to talk about.
00;20;57;25 – 00;21;21;29
Unknown
But, you know, all you have to do is ask somebody else about themselves. Let them come, I say. Then when they’re talking it and you’re listening, it shows that you’re interested in them, which makes them feel good, and you’re learning from what they’re talking about. And all of a sudden, something someone will twig in and all of a sudden you’ll engage and you’ll be surprised how a conversation will start to go.
00;21;22;00 – 00;21;25;14
Unknown
Just because somebody asked you a question or you asked in a question.
00;21;25;26 – 00;21;45;23
Unknown
I’m involved with the arts immersion. You know, we’re dealing with vulnerable people or people with mental health. And so I’ve got a mentee and we went out to, Langlands. She loves to photograph and she really wants to learn photography. So on and so forth. And I said, okay, so we go out to Lyman’s reserve because it’s so peaceful out there.
00;21;45;23 – 00;22;08;08
Unknown
Right. But there’s, you know, it was because there’s so much she can take pictures of. And I can teach her about lighting and so on and so forth. So we went out that just actually last Friday we were out and the ducks and the geese were galore. I mean, I, you know, and it was, it was such a beautiful and, and, and I’m trying to tell her what to do.
00;22;08;08 – 00;22;34;23
Unknown
And you know, she’s taking pictures so and so and I thought, you know, I haven’t been out here and I bet you over ten years and this is so peaceful. I don’t have a camera with me. Right, I don’t I it’s about her. And, I thought, this is wonderful, but the sun wasn’t quite in the right position to get really good pictures, so I thought, I’m going to go out early, so I’m going to get up early Saturday morning, I’m going to grab a coffee and then I go out.
00;22;34;25 – 00;22;51;09
Unknown
Sun will be low. It’ll be perfect. So that’s what I did. And then I was out there by about 730, 8:00. I got out there. There wasn’t a duck or a goose to be seen on that water, but I could hear them all in the background. So I thought, well, okay, I’m here now. I’m going to sit and wait.
00;22;51;09 – 00;23;11;22
Unknown
So I sat on a picnic table with my car, didn’t even have my camera in my hand, and I just I looked and all of a sudden everything started to go away. And I felt so calm and I thought, this, I have to do this more often. It reminded myself, I have to do this more often. Just sit with your coffee and watch.
00;23;11;24 – 00;23;33;19
Unknown
Nature will take care of you, mom. Nature always does. And within about a half an hour I was just about finished my coffee and all of a sudden I could hear the geese honking. I went over by where the swans are over there, and I started to watch. And I had seen. I’d never seen this happen before out there, but sort of in the center of language, there’s a, you know, like a clear opening for a pond.
00;23;33;19 – 00;23;54;06
Unknown
And then there’s all the, the region, bushes around it. And I swear to God, there was 50 geese all in a line swimming from that pond over to where all the stumps were and everything that I wanted to photograph. And they all swam there, and they were just kept coming. And then they’d find your little spot in there.
00;23;54;08 – 00;24;15;11
Unknown
And I was all set up for pictures. But I had a half hour of doing nothing but quiet, watching nature, feeling the breeze on my face, listening to the background, just looking at the water. It was so peaceful, and I think more and more people should do that. I need to do art. Yeah, no 100%. That sounds amazing.
00;24;15;11 – 00;24;36;27
Unknown
And I love, you’ve mentioned it a couple times, the patients where you’ve either felt like, you know, the the geese weren’t they weren’t where you wanted them to be, you know, talking about finding the barn with the swaying. And you’re like, I like the sound. And it was nothing, really, you know? But you give it time and you just let, like you said, you let nature just kind of you let things unfold, and then you capture that.
00;24;36;27 – 00;24;58;04
Unknown
And I think that you capture. Yeah, that that’s what we’re missing now, I think, is there’s such importance of peace and doing more and more and more and faster, faster, faster. We need to do the opposite now. Yeah. You need to bring it back. You know, one of the tips that, you know, and I and I just thought of you’d said something, but even doing writing a year task list for the day.
00;24;58;07 – 00;25;26;28
Unknown
And I used to actually put in do nothing for this hour like. And so nothing else would. You know, I, I wasn’t scheduling anything. I just had to be careful that I wasn’t taking that hour of free time and doing something else. But it started to remind me that, you know what you’re worth. Half hour, an hour, whatever it is every day, you know, even if you just go get a coffee, sit back and close your eyes, you know, it’s it’s your time.
00;25;26;28 – 00;25;47;06
Unknown
And think about something nice. Not about work, not about the world. Just think about, you know, what you’d like to do if you could. Where would you like to travel? If you could just. You have to do that sometimes. And maybe that’s what people need to understand on their busy phones. Is your time. Me time? Yeah. I think you nailed it, though.
00;25;47;06 – 00;26;13;23
Unknown
It’s your worth that time. Yeah. And I think so much of our worth now is on how much we can do with the time that we have, as opposed to that we are worth that time to be introspective or to, you know, reflect or to, you know. Yeah. And you know, I keep thinking all these in July, I remember when I was working with, at corrections and I said it was it was fast paced, it was negative and stuff.
00;26;13;25 – 00;26;30;25
Unknown
And, I really started to get high blood pressure at the time. And a lot of it was just, you know, the stress of the work. And I’ll be okay. I’ll be okay, you know? And I went and got the doctor, I got pills, but I still had the high blood pressure and work was really getting. This was getting towards the end before I left.
00;26;30;27 – 00;26;59;04
Unknown
And I remember my wife said to me, Michael, what do you want me to tell your bosses when you’re lying in the hospital and you can’t speak that, that really hit home about, stress and not enjoying what you’re doing and thinking that, you know, maybe you’re not as important as you you might think you are. Because life’s going to carry on after you’re gone.
00;26;59;04 – 00;27;05;22
Unknown
Except us and the kids. So, yeah, it was that was that really, really hit home?
00;27;07;28 – 00;27;11;27
Unknown
Looking back over his entire life, I asked Mike if he would change anything.
00;27;14;01 – 00;27;35;26
Unknown
No, I, I wouldn’t change any time. I might do something a little different. Because everything I did, you know, as I said before, it led me to something better. If I changed anything, it might be, having more confidence in myself.
00;27;35;28 – 00;27;58;19
Unknown
You know, if I think I can do something, well, then I can do it. And. And, you know, when an opportunity knocks, take it. Because it was meant to be. And I’ve learned that. So. And if I was to do anything different is I wouldn’t lollygag and think, oh, should I take this, should I do this? What if I don’t play the what if game?
00;27;58;19 – 00;28;20;06
Unknown
What if I take this and this happens in this? I’ve learned not to do that anymore. So. But those are the things I would change. Because I just wasted a lot of time and frustrated myself. I don’t think I ever lost out on anything. But, it certainly was a lot of back and forth and thinking about when deep down I knew it might have been the right decision.
00;28;20;06 – 00;28;37;05
Unknown
I should have went with it, you know, go with your gut. I think it was right. But, you know, that’s where the where the what if game comes in, like, well, what if I take this, you know, position or what if I do this, what will happen then. Well, you just have to go with it and then deal with whatever.
00;28;37;05 – 00;29;05;12
Unknown
Just like I said, you you deal with whatever comes up and focus on a solution and not an issue. I think all the decisions that I had made were all the right ones for the right reasons. At the time. Any advice that you would give, let’s say the younger generation or to, to your younger self? You know, I, I think that they have to realize that, not everything is the way you see it on TV.
00;29;05;14 – 00;29;40;22
Unknown
All the good things that happen, whether it be through getting a job, falling in love, having a happy marriage or not having a happy marriage. News seems to focus on all the negative stuff, and the world is not like that. It’s going to be what you make it. And if you decide that, you know, the people have a, I think have an internal sense, if you think that, I’m not worthy of that person’s friendship because they have more friends, and I do.
00;29;40;29 – 00;30;01;28
Unknown
That’s that, that’s wrong. You can have just as many friends, if not more, if you want to go out and search for and if you want to work out it a little bit, not everybody’s going to be all that you want them to be, but they will be your friends if you allow them. And and you take the good with the bad and you just be careful.
00;30;01;28 – 00;30;19;09
Unknown
The friendships that you’re looking for just don’t take any friend because they’re the first one that puts their hand up. There might be an alternative reason why they’ve done that. You know, choose your friends closely, but be willing to step out and try. The worst that can happen is you can say, I ain’t going to work for me.
00;30;19;09 – 00;30;23;13
Unknown
So it’s not my beliefs. I’ll look elsewhere.
00;30;27;12 – 00;30;30;05
Unknown
This was such a delightful conversation with Mike.
00;30;30;05 – 00;30;35;22
Unknown
I appreciate him taking me on a journey and being open to sharing helpful insight he’s gained over the years.
00;30;35;22 – 00;30;39;22
Unknown
It’s really helpful to hear different perspectives as we move through our own lives.
00;30;42;03 – 00;31;01;22
Unknown
Thank you for listening to the entire episode. All the links and info you heard in this conversation will be featured in the show notes on our website. If you’d like to know more about anything we mentioned in this episode, make sure to check Villager Magazine Talks Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you’re listening from.
00;31;01;24 – 00;31;10;16
Unknown
If you’d like to help this podcast grow, consider subscribing to our podcast channels like YouTube or Spotify so you never miss an episode. Thanks again and I’ll see you next time.
Guest Links
Website: https://ashoeboxofmemories.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AShoeboxOfMemories/
Related
Beaver Creek Correctional Facility
North Simcoe Arts
Chapters
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:10 Life After Retirement
- 03:21 When is it Time to Make a Change
- 05:09 Self-Confidence is the Secret
- 07:55 Finding Balance
- 09:52 Photography as a Creative Endeavour
- 17:05 What Does Success Mean
- 19:13 The Effects of Negativity and How to Combat it
- 27:14 A Look Back – What Would Mike Change
Guest Quotes
“When you have an issue, don’t focus on the issue. Focus on the solution.”
– Mike Bailey
“You know what you’re worth. Half hour, an hour, whatever it is every day, even if you just go get a coffee. Sit back and close your eyes, it’s your time.”
– Mike Bailey
“I didn’t like who I was becoming. I was becoming negative. I was becoming cynical. And I thought, that’s not me, and I’m not going to bring that home to my family. So I thought, it’s time for a change.”
– Mike Bailey




