Why Retirement Planning / Coaching?

So, here you are, a busy professional, nearing the end of your career.  You know you will be eligible to retire soon and have already made plans with your financial planner, so you have a realistic understanding of your situation.

Yet, there is this fuzzy feeling about retirement.  You're not really sure what it will be like.  There's really no concrete information available to assist you, other than how much money is in your pension or 401(k).  All you have to go on is sketchy anecdotal evidence.

For example, Fred down the hall retired last year and he stopped by a couple of weeks after his farewell party.  He was tanned, looked great.  He said he was golfing at least three times a week.  But then a few days ago you heard through the grapevine that he decided to go into real estate.   What's up with that?  Isn't retirement about relaxing?  Real estate isn't relaxing...

As John Robinson of the University of Maryland and Geoffrey Godbey of Penn State, the nation's leading experts on time use comment:  "The lives of most seniors who fill out our time diaries seem to revolve around the television set."  Housework is the next major subcategory of activity absorbing time liberated in later life.

Mmmmm - makes you want to dash right out there, doesn't it?

And then there are other nagging thoughts:

     ~ How can I "give back" my talents in a meaningful way?

     ~ Where should I live?

     ~ How can I prevent loneliness when I don't see my friends from work every day?

     ~ Will the hobby/sport/activity I have in mind get boring?

     ~ Will I hang out in my bathrobe all day?  How can I keep myself moving?

The truth is, retirement is a major life transition - as significant as graduation, or marriage, or having children.  It changes your life completely. 

Are you ready for Retirement Planning / Coaching?

Working with a retirement coach will help you clarify what is truly, deeply important to you.  It will help you, as Sam Keen said, "...uncover the grain in your own wood."

You've spent your life working and being responsible to others.  Retirement will be a time to spend time on yourself, to make that lost dream a reality, or to reflect on what's truly important. 

Retirement is not an ending, it is a new beginning.  You are starting on a journey where you realize how interesting life is, how alive you can be, and how the dream that you set aside many years ago because life took over, can now be realized.

The key is to start now.  To dig deeper within yourself now, while you have time to make decisions that can support your new direction.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality.  To change something, build a new model that makes the existing one obsolete.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

The next wave of retirees will be the Baby Boomers, who have redesigned every life stage they have ever been in.  Retirement will be no different. 

What Happens in Retirement Planning / Coaching?

The first step in Retirement planning/coaching is to take the Retirement Success Profile (RSP) developed by Richard Johnson, Ph.D.  He has identified 15 factors that together help you understand your strengths, and what areas need attention in your readiness to retire.  It gives you information available nowhere else, and it gives us direction for your planning and coaching.

When you know where you stand, it's easier to know how to make your transition, and to plan for an uncertain future.

The assessment is available on-line with a 23-page report sent back by e-mail.  Dr. Johnson has also developed a specialized version for those who have already retired, so it's not too late to pay attention to how those factors are impacting your life right now. 

For those planning to retire that are in a committed relationship, there is a version designed specifically for the "spouse" of a retiree.  The "spouse" has a completely different set of issues that are more than likely ignored during the planning process.  If this is the case for you, it would make better sense for you to plan Un-retirement as a couple. 

Retirement has a huge impact on you and your loved ones.  You can have a life of meaning and fulfillment, but it doesn't happen by accident.  You need to plan for it.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.  May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

~ Edward Abbey

Read More about the benefits of Retirement Planning / Coaching.