SEVEN STEPS TO A SATISFYING RETIREMENT

As you are well aware by now there are over 80 million Baby Boomers who are beginning to retire in droves. In fact, one Boomer reaches age fifty every 7.5 seconds. Most will retire within 5 years. Because Boomers are chronologically, physically and psychologically younger than their parents were when they retired it will be very different for them. So if you are a Boomer here a seven suggestions for making your retirement more satisfying.

1. Retire the word “retirement” from your vocabulary. Think of it as making a transition from the First Half to the Second Half of your life something akin to moving from infancy to adolescence. In this way your retirement can be properly seen as an opportunity for growth, learning and discovery.

2. Listen to your inner voice when it begins asking, “Who am I?”, “How do I use my talents?”, and “What do I believe?” These questions provide an opportunity to identify and live unfulfilled dreams as well as allowing you to use hidden talents—things that are often illusive during the First Half.

3. Allow yourself to dream about all the things you’d like to do and to be. Perhaps it’s buying a vacation house, or taking piano lessons or starting a new business. A well known person reluctantly thrust into the Second Half dreamed about opening a fried chicken restaurant borrowing a recipe that had been used in the family for years. Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise are now part of popular lore about the power of dreams.

4. Evaluate your situation remembering that life is made up of many different parts—career, finances, friends, marriage, mental and physical development, values, etc. One of your goals in the Second Half is to create a more balanced life by placing equal emphasis on each part-- again, something that was often difficult to pull off in the First Half. So assess each part of your life and determine where you need to refocus. For example, you may conclude you have neglected your health or an important relationship. If so, do something to correct the situation.

5. Develop goals and set priorities for important areas of your life. This will help you organize your time and energies in pursuit of your dreams. One of the reasons people often flounder during their Second Half is they don’t have goals. As a result, their time is often frittered away. Remember, goals create action and its action that gets results.

6. Organize your time using a day planner or wireless device because it helps impose structure on each day, something that is lost when you leave work and retire. In this manner, there is greater likelihood you’ll achieve goals that are important to you.

7. Eliminate negative self-talk because it sabotages the opportunity to achieve your dreams and goals for the Second Half. When you have a negative thought replace it with a positive one. For example, if one of your goals for the Second Half is to find part time employment and you find yourself thinking “No one is going to hire me at my age.” Replace the though with one that proclaims, “The job market is challenging but I have a lot to offer.” I know it is hard to believe but the mind doesn’t distinguish a true thought from a false one. Whatever is planted in the mind becomes reality.

The transition into the Second Half is often jarring and unsettling. There will undoubtedly be periods of uncertainty, anxiety, even fear. These reactions are normal. Making a successful transition often involves going up a lot of different paths until the right one is found. However, if you follow these seven steps I am confident the path will be a lot smoother for you.