Ideas about ideas

The Italian Renaissance poet Ariosto, who is not well-known in the English-speaking world, was once asked by his patron Ippolito d’Este:Where did you find so many stories?

How is this relevant to coaching you ask, well that is also a good question. The essence of retirement coaching is for the client to find MEANING in his/her life, postwork. These problems are notoriously difficult to think through without some sort of help. Not impossible, but not easy.

The coach assists the client to generate ideas or stories that can help to define his/her future self. Where do these ideas come from? We don’t need to ask Ariosto or any other poet or writer, because there is a more widely-known model.

As professional investors know, you typically build a portfolio strategy around certain ideas, or stories, that concern stocks, bonds and other markets. These ideas and stories can be found through talking, discussing, reading. Then you sift through them for the most meaningful ideas and stories at that moment, analyse them and if - acceptable - action them.

So a retired person can locate suitable ideas and stories that relate to his/her MEANING by talking, discussing, reading - all under the watchful eye of a coach – sift for the best of them at that time; then put them into play.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.