Ambition and retirement

Three simple questions about retirement:

I pose these three questions, in order to answer them.

1.   Is there a formula for a happy retirement? I don’t think there is.

2.   Is there a science behind retirement? Yes, to some extent.

3.   Is there an art to retiring well? Yes there is.

Retirement coaches are there to help clients figure out the art and science of retirement. 

Then the obvious question to ask is: who might benefit from being coached into retirement? To answer this I will divide retired humanity into three very broad groups:

1.   Those happy people who, in their working lives, favoured balance over ambition. They will probably coast into retirement without the help of a coach.

2.   People who were ambitious at work but view retirement as the ultimate period of de-stressing. They will probably work out their own way to de-stress.

3.   This third group consists of people who were not only ambitious in their working lives, but now want to find outlets for their ambition in retired life.

I believe that it’s the third group who can benefit most from the art and science of retirement coaching. 

Why is it so? It’s for the reason that typically they will fear that in retirement they will no longer be useful and productive. Moreover they fear that a long period of life without clear goals could lead to profound unhappiness.

If you are in this third group, the good news is this. In retirement you won’t need to target job promotion or increased pay as a goal for your ambition. 

Instead you can work with your retirement coach to construct highly personal goals and activities for your retired life. 

Please contact me if you wish to discuss this further.

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