Enjoy the Ride!
Retirement can be a roller coaster: exciting – boring – confusing – a sense of freedom – a feeling of loss – the thrill of opportunity and possibility – living your dream – time for you, and naps – doing what you want – no more alarm clock – time for hobbies – time to get in shape – wellness in retirement – lonely – isolated – fun with your partner – fun finding a partner….
Retirement is a major life transition, and like any major change, it takes some thought and internal work for it to be both successful and satisfying. Whether you are thinking of retiring at 65, 75 or older, there are probably still many years ahead of you, so spending some time thinking and planning about this next phase of your life is essential and will pay off with many benefits.
There are many ways to describe retirement. It can be a period of growth, a progression from where you are now, a transformation, or maybe just a realignment of your thinking and what you will be doing. It is a passage, a turning point and may be looked at as an upheaval. However you think about it or describe it, this transition is an enormous opportunity.
For some it seems like the gold at the end of the rainbow and maybe doesn’t feel like much work is needed to prepare, for others it is a little more daunting.
Let’s look at a few of the things you are giving up by retiring, both positive, and negative.
1. Structure – Not having to get up, get dressed up, get in the car and go to work – or if working from home, having to jump on zoom or start working on that report that is due.
The lack of having structure imposed on you by your work can be a negative because it can look like looking over a cliff with a big nothing out there. If that’s what it looks like to you, then there’s work to do to put order in your life after retirement and to get you off that cliff.
One of the things that is useful when facing that cliff is to create a different kind of structure. Schedule your workout sessions or golf games first thing in the morning to get your day started, plan a vacation for right after your retirement party, sign up for some workshops for things that you think you might be interested in.
For many, the best way for retirement to start is to take a break. Whether that be staying at home and being a couch potato, travelling, or something else that involves doing little. There is no right amount of time for this for everyone. You might need a week or two, or several months might be more what you are craving. When I retired the second time, I took two weeks to go on a road trip with my husband visiting friends and seeing some places I had not yet seen. That was enough to relax from the end of the job and begin to strategize about what I wanted to do with the nonprofit that I had founded and now would get to run full time. I was charged up and ready to go when we returned.
When I retired the third time however, I was physically, emotionally and mentally spent and it took almost 3 months of sitting on the couch reading novels to recover. Being a driven person, I had initially thought that a week or two, like my previous retirement, would be sufficient. I was quite surprised when I found that after that initial two weeks, I was nowhere close to being ready to get up and do anything. When I was done with my recovery, I knew it and was ready to get off the couch and get to work.
2. Paycheck – having that money coming in every couple of weeks that I could use for travel or a new pair of shoes or a gift to a family member. Getting clarity with your finances is essential for peace of mind. We asked retired people to name the three essential elements to a satisfying retirement, and having your finances in order was in almost everyone’s answer. Included in this was that your home be paid off and be debt free. It is a good idea to work with a professional to go over all the what ifs, and to identify what your projected lifestyle is going to cost you – or whether you are willing to shift your expectations of what you can do as a retired person.
3. Support systems. When we are working we have people we can talk to, mentors we can ask for guidance, colleagues we trust to ask for help. Once you are retired, you will need to create a support system. Maybe you have family and friends that you know who will continue to be there for you after you retire, but remember that how they relate to you now is going to change once you are retired. This is a critical piece of your retirement and one that you will want to start work on early. An active social life is one of the greatest factors in ensuring a long and healthy life.
4. IT help. This for me was one of the big cliffs I was jumping off in retirement. Not being able to pick up the phone or send a text message to the IT person to ask for help – whether it was to fix something, add some new hardware or software, and generally be there for everything technological. Luckily, I found a woman who does just that and is quite accessible. So now I can still pick up the phone and get the help I need.
5. Friends at work. As well as the support systems I spoke of above, there are also the friends we have made at work. People we see almost every day. Maybe have lunch with regularly. Perhaps they are not ready to retire so these friendships often fade away once you retire. Or even if they retire at the same time, perhaps they are moving to a different city. Making friends does not seem a simple thing to many people, so it is something that needs to be thought through and where getting help will be a game changer.
When you are ready to tackle questions like when and where to retire, there are ways we can help. We have Feisty & Fearless Over Fifty Circles and Personal, one-on-one coaching.
With membership in Feisty & Fearless Over Fifty Circles, and with Personal Coaching you will
Identify just what you want your retirement to look like
Relief from the uncertainty of retirement
Effective tools and information to move forward
Questions that may seem intense, and will bring forth transformative answers
Tasks to take on between each session to help you achieve the results you are looking for
Build a life of joy, fulfillment and satisfaction
A roadmap for Living the Good Life
If you would like to find out more and set up a free, initial call, send me an email at pfield@coach4women.com
