Are You Retiring or Recalibrating?

Is retirement or semi-retirement on your horizon in 2019? Or, are you wondering what new dimension you want to add to your retirement this year? Maybe you've started your retirement focused in one area, for example, caring for grandchildren or a parent, and now as time has passed or need has changed, you are looking for a new or additional focus. Isn't this a juicy time of year to plan what's ahead? Your next chapter has endless potential!

How about a little stimulation to spur your thoughts?  In Recalibrate for Life 2.0: Transition Stories for Business Leaders, author Susan Spaulding challenges leaders at mid-life to take stock and decide what is calling out to them to do next. She shared a nice framework for it in a blog for Next Avenue in 2016 that I find just as applicable for planning and living life in retirement. I've taken liberties with some of her points and adapted the language for thinking about what comes next in retirement.

For those of you pondering if you are ready to retire and how to get from here to there, you can use these questions to generate thought about your readiness:
1. How long have you been thinking seriously about your exit from your career?
2. What are three things dominating your thinking about your retirement?
3. Do you have a transition strategy?
4. Do you have a transition timeline?
5. How do you envision your transition and your retirement?

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Here are a few additional tips from Melissa Phipps about readying to retire:

1. Clarify that you want to retire vs. wanting to leave an unsatisfying work situation. Are you rushing to retirement when another job or shift in approach may be a better choice?
   
2. How might you phase in retirement? Might you reduce your hours or take on another less stressful position?
   
3. Get references while you are still working. At least 20% of people who retire decide to go back to work (and predictions are that number will go to 50% as we live longer). Your future volunteer work may also require references. It's easier to secure them now vs. after you have been out of the workplace for a couple of years.
4. Consider what you will do next. Retirement is about more than what you aren't going to do (your job). Most retirees report they are happier with some level of commitment such as freelance work, a part-time job, or a volunteer position.

Whether you are just beginning your retirement or wanting to begin a new part of your retirement, Spaulding also provided this self-inventory (that I've adapted a bit). We may want and need to take a fresh look several times during retirement as our circumstances or interests change. Even if I am not generating a new plan for what comes next, this is a great tool for taking stock of my well-being and contentedness with how I'm spending my days:

The Facts

1. What have you been doing?
2. Do you feel done with that?
3. What do you know? What knowledge do you want to make use of going forward?

The Positives

1. What are the positives about where you've been?
2. What are the positives about what you see ahead for yourself?
3. What are the positives about who you are?

Feelings

1. How do you feel right now?
2. Are you at your best, and if not, how do you feel when you are?
3. How do you want to feel each day?
4. What is your passion right now?

Possibilities

1. What are the possibilities for what's next for you? If you are not finding much, what else might you imagine?
2. What do you want to do and accomplish in the near-term?
3. What do you want to learn?

Barriers

1. What are the barriers or roadblocks to either retiring or beginning what's next?
   
2. What's holding you back from pursuing what you want?

Is there a question in there that jumps out at you? That may be the one you hold on to and spend some time with these next days.

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Using your answers above and the thoughts they spurred, begin to write about what's next, whether you are retiring, or ready for something new. Spaulding suggests focusing on three P's when creating what's next: your purpose, your passion and your unique personality.

Here are some questions to begin creating your story:

1. What do you intend to do?
2. What's the point of doing this?
3. How will you measure whether you are doing it?
4. What resources will you need?
5. When will this be put in place in your life?
6. How will you know if you are enjoying it?

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I hope your year to come will hold the perfect adventures and insights and that you will move through the year with purpose, joy and fulfillment. Have a great 2019!

Wanting to not simply fill your calendar but have greater meaning in life? Ruth Tongen helps people take stock, plan and live retirement or a next great chapter in a happier, healthier way. Find an 'aha', move it to an aspiration, get out of being stuck, and then put it into action. Live your life in a way that matters.

E-mail me: ruth@ruthtongen.com to get started now on building your next chapter.

Melissa Phipps. Top 10 Tips for Retiring from Your Job: How to Go from Working to Retired. 
Susan Spaulding. The 3-Step Plan to Recalibrate Yourself in Midlife.