When I was little I wanted to be a POET!
Aim back to the North,
aim back to the burning West.
Home is there waiting.Tyler Knott Gregson
Then life came an took that dream somewhere else …. to Tyler’s path and other’s too but not mine.
Now I’m 54 and determined to make my next big entrance in life a worthy one. I have learned a few tricks to make dreams part of my life and my reality. Yes! I have missed some dreams too. I feel like building and rebuilding life is part of the fun.
I will be retiring in 10 years! And psychologists predict that if I create a vision for my retirement I will be happier when the time comes. Determined as I am and with more than 30 years in the business environment, I should know how to create a vision for my retirement.
This is my plan. I will face this retiring-happy challenge as if I’d be building an enterprise. Let’s approach it with the passion of an entrepreneur and the heart of the poet that, somewhere, must be still living in me. Don’t pack yet …… we have time. Like many paraphernalia would say “stay calm and retire.” With a little luck it will be before I reach 64!
First step: Knowing Myself
It seems to me that in the “Knowing Myself” department I should have experience as well. I have had “myself” for 54 years. But I always approach discovering the self with hesitation because this is what I know so far: we are evolving beings. How can I make sure that the vision I design today is the vision I will want 10 yeas from now? The honest answer is I don’t know. That said, psychologists warm me that missing to create a vision for my retirement will have a high probability of leading me to an unhappy retirement.
The Stanford Center on Longevity study on “The Decision to Retire” postulates that “successful retirements result from retiring ‘to’ a positive vision of life after the career transition rather than retiring ‘from’ the negative aspects of work. One powerful factor that pulls people to retire is having an engaging vision of life after retirement, such as travel, pursuing interests or causes, new career directions, and/or spending time with friends and family.” I’m already excited by the prospect of developing an engaging vision of my life once I retire.
Using my entrepreneur’s hat I know that I need to find what is the big problem around retirement. According to the World Health Organization life expectancy is growing. Thus, the big “problem” (to me good news) is that we have more time. We better don’t waste it since it is the last chance to be happier.
I will use this blog to summarize the results of my research as I keep collecting information on how to make the best out of my next stage in life. I could just show my perspective; however, it will be more enriching if we design scenarios that include more than my perspective (or my husband’s perspective).
If you want your perspective to be included, let’s start by learning about your demographics by answering seven questions in the following survey here. I will keep updating the results for you.
Once I collect more than 25 answers to the Survey on Demographics, you will be able to see the results on the Home page.
Retirement Cloud 