The My Next Phase Newsletter - Volume 10 | |||
The Retirement Fulfillment Equation
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We hear it often from clients who start on My Next Phase after they've stopped working, sometimes dispirited that retirement isn't meeting their expectations: I can't believe how much I'm missing work. Work? The very thing we spend much of our lives doing...just to save for the day we won't have to anymore? The 7:59 train (or bumper-to-bumper drive). The weekly staff meetings, daily reports, seemingly hourly conference calls. The non-stop e-mail assault. So what, precisely, is there to miss about work? Lots, it turns out, and of a fundamental nature. Work can be a grind, but it's also a place bustling with people we like. A place (at least at times) ripe with intellectual challenge, and with avenues to express our creativity. A place where we can lead, perhaps "be someone other" than we are at home for a healthy part of the day. Generally speaking, for most of us, work provides fulfillment in a host of deeply important ways, socially, mentally, sometimes physically; fulfillment that needs replenishment once work is out of the equation. Connecting daily with people we genuinely value, gaining satisfaction from a task we do well, or gaining recognition from people we admire come somewhat automatically in good work environments. But you need to plan the right way to find those same kinds of friends, feelings of accomplishment and sense of worth (to name just a few) from places other than the office. What do we really mean by fulfillment? We like to use the equation, "fulfillment = importance + satisfaction." While we may love putting together a great outfit, that's not high on the importance list. On the flipside, raking leaves may be an important household task, but something we do only grudgingly. We need both ingredients for the dough to rise high. Volunteering is a common path to post-work fulfillment, and a ready way to balance that equation. For some, volunteering becomes a quasi-career, a new workplace with miles more latitude and flexibility than our careers afforded. It can provide a new and high-quality social network, and replace the sense of purpose that work once did. |
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We advise clients to choose their volunteer pursuit(s) wisely, making sure their activities match their personality, and stand to replace fulfilling activities from work. The My Next Phase process helps brainstorm and sort out options, and narrow down the list to ones most suited to personality, past experience and overall goals for retirement. While the idea of volunteering on its own is certainly noble, like for most worthwhile things, it takes the right kind of upfront work. If, for instance, you have an independent activity style and like to lead, consider smaller organizations where you can play a bigger role. For example, working (or, at least starting) at the local chapter of an organization you value, rather than the national office. You may well feel unsatisfied and frustrated in an undefined role on a larger stage, where you'd be asked to follow rather than lead. We had an independent-minded client whose greatest fulfillment from work came from envisioning new possibilities and working on them himself before engaging others. (He has an independent activity style and visionary information style.) As part of his retirement, he planned to volunteer as a docent at his favorite local museum. We helped him see how this type of role neither matched his personality, nor would give him the same sense of fulfillment he used to get from work. He would likely have gotten bored and disgruntled quickly with the routine-ness and scarce opportunity for visionary thinking. After completing My Next Phase, he offered to re-do the museum's docent program -- something that all agreed was sorely needed, and that was right in line with his style traits. Another My Next Phase graduate originally came to us after badly failing at a golf-centric retirement. He came to realize he missed leading and teaching younger colleagues, and found his volunteer niche in small business mentoring. Through our process, he learned he liked smaller group settings, so the one-to-one leadership opportunities fit him to a T. (And golf became fun again once he refashioned it as leisure pursuit instead of retirement focus.) Alternatively, you might have an interdependent activity style, and enjoy working in groups. More loosely defined responsibilities, perhaps with more than one organization, may be the volunteering style for you - especially if you are outgoing and have strong social needs, and wish to enhance your friends and acquaintances network once seeing your "work friends" regularly is no longer feasible. Be it volunteering, a new or modified work role -- even leisure pursuits -- run your retirement activities list through a satisfaction filter. Consider things that you have enjoyed doing in the past, or activities to which you've always look forward. Are there tasks that when you perform them, time seems to fly by? Or activities that energize and fascinate you, even just thinking about them? If so, they are likely poised to deliver the kind of fulfillment that your career may give you, or once did. Bonus: no more shivering on the platform, awaiting that 7:59 express. To forward to a friend, please click here. To send a message or question to the My Next Phase team, please click here. To learn more about membership, please click here. Copyright ©2008 My Next Phase. All Rights Reserved | |||
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