Retirement Advice: Try Something New

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Personal Development 101

A year ago I was still an employee. I was chaffing at the limitations of that role and some personality conflicts that would eventually convince me to retire. At that point, however, I was not feeling like a ‘short timer’ as we used to say in the Army. I was still committed to my job and employer. The task at hand was a speech to an industry group. I had been a regular speaker to this group over the past 20 years. I wasn’t uncomfortable about doing it but I did feel that my skills could be improved. My style was authoritative and I never persuaded anybody to change their thinking. I just lectured.

Add Some Humor

I decided this time to change myself and improve my technique. This involved a different method of organizing the talk which is a normal part of my skill set and telling a joke which is not. I decided that just because I never had been able to use humor in my talks and believed myself unable to relate to an audience through humor, I was going to do it anyway. After all, what is the worst thing that could happen? If people didn’t laugh then it would be just like my other talks. My talk went well. People laughed at my joke and got more involved in my talk.

Lifestyle Design: Growing my vision of myself

This was my first acceptance of the idea that I can change who I am. I began to believe that my definition of myself only set limits on what I could achieve. It did not identify my potential. I am capable of more than I think I am. This is the way I am dealing with my retired life. What I think I am or am capable of doing is only a starting point. I am a blank slate ready to fill with my outrageous retirement story. I am still constantly struggling to get past the limits I place on myself and focus on the person I want to be but I also surprise myself with what I can do.

Don’t Limit Yourself

I think that we all have a person inside of us with amazing abilities. The only thing keeping that person hidden is our limiting belief in who we are. Any time is a good time to open your thinking and be that person but retirement is special because there are no longer outside forces telling us what to do. What do you want to be? What would you like to be remembered as? Do you want to change who you are? What changes are you making to be the person you want to be whether in retirement or anytime? Share your thoughts or feelings in a comment.

Originally posted 2010-09-17 08:22:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Going on Your Own

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3081123 d3e9e4e041 m Going on Your Own
Image by Jake Sutton via Flickr

How do you decide that you have to get out of a dead end job situation?  When do make the decision to learn about other opportunities, other business situations and begin to consider creating your own business?  When do you realize that the commitments and promises of employment sector- security, stability and a comfortable  retirement - are not realistic any longer?  And when you do decide, what do you do?  Where do you find the information you need to identify the opportunities and knowledge you need?  I have been around this block.  I retired twice without achieving the financial security to do what I want.  It is a tough world today but there are also opportunities for people who decide.

The realities of today’s economy affect people differently.  Younger people never expected a retirement system or lifetime employment but baby boomers were lulled into a false security.  They believed in secure jobs and comfortable retirements up until the system collapsed leaving them with reduced or lost retirement income and a stressed life stlye.  Boomers have lost the most and and find themselves strapped.  Many want more income but don’t know what to do or where to turn.  I understand.  I have been there.  I have chronicled some of my decision points and insight on this blog.

Dealing with change to begin with. Change is always difficult and threatening but there are ways to keep your head and make sure that you find the opportunities. Then, of course, there is the problem of deciding when things are bad enough that you just have to get out.

Assessing the situation in your job is difficult as well.  Looking at the five levels of organizations can give you a better idea if there is a reason to stay or leave.

And finally some wise counseling from Seth Godin helped me make the right decision for me- I Quit.

If you are a boomer moving along the same decision path that I followed, you begin to understand that multiple streams of income is the best insurance in the unpredictable future we face.  Maybe you know some vehicles and just need the nudge.  But maybe you need more information – both about how to create a business of your own and what some of the vehicles to use as well as background on the mindset you need and some good reading to get you ready.  For that reason, I created a resource to get you started, a compilation of the information I am using .  There are books that have helped me and background to help you identify what opportunities are available.  If you want to quit your job, supplement your retirement or find something fulfilling to do with the monotony of retirement, it is there for you.

Going on Your Own

Originally posted 2010-03-31 08:21:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

How you can overcome doubts

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Do you ever go stale?

232441976 3b656ae066 m1 How you can overcome doubtsWhatever your motivation, no matter how well you plan, and no matter how smoothly things are going, it is going to happen. You wake up one morning without the fire that has kept you pushing on, Something seems missing. Those goals aren’t so golden. The vision isn’t so clear and you just want to roll over and sleep. So what is the problem? Did you get off course or is it just the way the cookie crumbles? Can you fix it and get your activities back on course or have you lost it for good?

There is no warning.

It just happens. You are working hard. You see the vision of where you want to be. You are putting the pieces in place. You start to live the lifestyle that you want. Suddenly and for no reason you begin to doubt. The excitement dies. Work looses meaning and becomes drudgery. Despite all you effort, you slide from focused excitement back into a life of doubt and confusion What does it mean and what can you do about it?

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devil duckies (Photo credit: eyemage)

There are many ways to explain what is going on. You might call it life inertia which wants to pull human activity back from exceptional to ordinary. You might see it as the Devil who fights the extraordinary side of human nature and encourages ordinary and average by planting doubt where none is justified. Whatever the nature of the force, it is hard wired into the human psyche and impossible to ignore. It is easier and more natural to fail than to succeed and something deep inside pulls us back from success.. Success is uncomfortable enough but striving for success before you reach it is torture.

Self-doubt challenge your every action by questioning your worthiness.

 ”Who do you think you are?”

“Why do you think you deserve to succeed?”

“What makes you so smart?”

Self doubt accompanies any journey into the unknown, particularly an ambitious one. Only a strong will can resist the call to fall back to ordinary efforts and expectations.

What can help?

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Coaches (Photo credit: Luther College Photos)

In my experience, only one things works and that one thing is to ignore all those negative messages and keep going because once you stop,it’s all over. You lose everything and must start all over again.

When you keep moving something always happens to reveal that the negative messages are lies. But sometimes keeping going is hard to do without some help. One help is a companion on your journey who shares your vision and can encourage you when you are down, Another is a mentor/coach who can encourage and cheer you on when you have a good plan and are making progress.

Bottom line when you have a plan which reincorporates real, heart-felt dreams and goals and serious activity which you have vetted with people who know how to have what you want, just keep plugging whatever your mind tells you. You are too close to the action to judge. Sometimes progress is not incremental or measurable along the way. Work is incremental steady effort. Success is sudden and amazing when it comes.

Work your plan and trust your plan.

 

How you can overcome doubts

Retirement: What gets you up?

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300px Old %2775 clock radio Retirement: What gets you up?
Image via Wikipedia

It’s over! Sunday I set the clocks back when daylight savings time ended. I used to look forward to the end of daylight savings time just for that one extra hour of sleep. No more. This year without the rigid schedule of a job, the time change is nothing more than a regulatory quirk. I can ignore it if I choose. Retirement means that I can get up when I want.

This raises a whole new issue. In my working days, getting up was not an option. I was committed to spending 8 hours a day at a location of my employer’s choice and my prime objective each morning was to deliver myself to that location whatever it took. Mostly that meant dragging myself out of bed and showing up at the job site. I didn’t want to get up most days but what I wanted was irrelevant. I didn’t have control. I put the best face on the situation I could. I pretended. I said I liked my job. I said I liked my coworkers. And so for 35 years I got up every morning and went to work. Continue reading →

Originally posted 2010-11-08 09:12:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter