Throughout your retirement, as in life, how you do anything is how you do everything. Last week’s ezine discussed the first of fifteen focus areas that you MUST review before you retire, as well as for the first five years AFTER you retire. We began with a story of Bill. Let me quickly recap his situation:
Bill recently sold his business and is now frustrated working for the new company. Bill wanted to find satisfying work if he decides to leave his current position, since he disagreed with how they were running the business and felt if that could not be worked out. He wasn’t sure what type of work would fulfill him, or whether he wanted to work part-time or full-time. Since Bill had been a workaholic, pouring his time and energy into the business, he had made little time for hobbies outside of his work and wanted to explore that possibility. Bill was suffering a second round of cancer, and was concerned about his health and happiness. He also wanted to find activities that would contribute towards his wellness.
The second focus area is Attitude Toward Retirement. Your attitude toward retirement is your perception of what your next life stage will be like for you once you leave your current job.
By working together with a retirement transition expert, Bill set some goals, deciding to focus on a phased retirement, meaning that he wanted to work at his current position for three more years and then leave that employment. Over those three years, he will gradually cut back his work time, and explore more leisure and travel opportunities. At this time, Bill is contemplating moving to a warmer climate for part of each year. He also committed to making changes in his attitude around the current employment and is taking a more proactive role in his work. He will continue to explore his leisure interests, and commit to the volunteer opportunities he chooses.
Retirement requires change, but also offers growth – internal growth, growth in life, in the intangibles of living, growth in personal compassion and sensitivity. Where do attitudes come from?
Positive or negative – they are self-fulfilling prophecies. Attitudes affect the entire personality. You should search for the deeper and deeper aspects of true, authentic, genuine self. Try to see retirement as full of options for personal growth. It is a new frontier for development.
My perception of what my next life stage would be like once I transitioned beyond my current job was very high. I was planning a successful retirement or renewal transition. Identifying this area as one of focus for me allowed me to realize the importance of preparing more for the transition. Making mature choices about what was best for me allowed me to be pulled forward toward my goals. Activities other than work quite naturally bring satisfaction and meet self-esteem needs. Since up to this point I had been primarily work oriented, through the use of the assessment I began to realize that my attitude toward retirement was “somewhat anemic” (words from the assessment, not mine!), meaning my focus was weak and in order to be successful in retirement, I needed to listen more to my heart rather than the logical thoughts in my head.
Your Assignment:
Some useful questions you need to ask yourself are:
What was your parents’ retirement experiences? What can you learn from them? What is your heart telling you that you’re not listening to right now?
If you’re looking for ways to figure out what your retirement will look like, and you know you definitely DON’T want to leave it to chance, contact me for a 30-minute ‘Get Acquainted Session’ to see if there are ways I can help you. Simply email me at Tracey@NewFaceOfRetirement.com and we’ll set up a time to chat.
This information is based on the original work created by Richard P. Johnson, Ph.D. in his book The New Retirement and the training certification through the Retirement Success Profile (RSP).
Tracey Fieber is founder of “The Secrets to Retirement Success System™”, the most complete Retirement Transition program for executives and small business owners.
Using her own principles, Tracey went from a corporate executive to a retirement filled with adventure, passion and purpose, in less than 8 months!
Tracey is the celebrated author of the Retirement Success Home Study System™, and author of the upcoming book “How to Retire to a Life of Adventure, Passion and Purpose”. Get your free CD “7 Steps to Cracking the Retirement Code”, available on www.NewFaceOfRetirement.com.
2010 © New Face of Retirement, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to pass the above in its entirety to anyone you wish.
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