How are you doing today?
You've traveled a long way to get here.
You've had success, and some regrets.
What have you learned in your journey?
What are you happy with?
What do you want to change?
Let your life experience guide your journey ahead.
Retirement can seem overwhelming. That's because it is!
No one gets a degree in "retirement." Sure, the interweb is full of "retirement planning" advice. This mostly boils down to, "Save and invest your money. If you're lucky, you'll have some left when you die." Hardly anyone does this mindfully. Hardly anyone works, saves, and then is happy spending the next 30 years golfing, traveling, and cleaning out the garage. This is especially true for changemakers.So, if you're having trouble planning out the next 20 or 30 years of your life, that's OK. It's perfectly normal. No one does that.
Retirement Joy means accepting what is real while creating your new reality.
Where do you start?
The only place to start is right where you are.
When I work with clients we start by drawing a baseline of how you're doing in your life now to get clarity on where you want to go. How satisfied are you with your financial situation? How satisfied are you with your health, energy level, and engagement in life?
How are your relationships serving you? How are you serving the people you care about in your life? What turns you on? What depletes you? What are you doing for fun? What gets you out of bed in the morning? (See why your answer to this question is critical for a joyful life and how it changes in retirement here.)
Let's Celebrate You!
As you answer these questions, give yourself a high-five! They ask for a fair amount of creativity and courage on your part. The fact is, by now, you've overcome a lifetime of challenges and created worlds that exist only because of you. So pause for a minute and congratulate yourself for all the friends, lovers, children, organizations, gardens, pets, meals, and goodness you've created in your life so far. Well done.
Where do you want to improve?
The cool (and scary) thing about retirement is that it starts a new relationship with time. The clock ticks at a more flexible, yet faster pace.
You have the opportunity now to reflect and make changes in your life.
What are you happy with in your life? What have you neglected during your career? Where can you make small changes that would pay off big in your life?
How have you been playing smaller than you know you can be?
Retirement Joy requires taking action to lead your life in a new, more powerful way before the clock runs down.