The My Next Phase Newsletter - Volume 4 | |||
Retirement Satisfaction: No Box Of Chocolates | |||
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A wise man (name of Gump) likened life to a box of chocolates ("you never know what you're gonna get"). For many, retirement satisfaction remains one of the box's bigger mysteries. Ask a retiree how they feel about their experience (or a near-retiree about their prospects), and you'll get the gamut, from depressed, to uncertain, to delighted. Ask about their transition to retirement, and you'll hear everything from smooth, comfortable to stressful, traumatic (not to mention, "retirement is a transition?"). Why do some bite in to find that nougat they crave, while others get the dreaded cherry (apologies, cherry fans). It starts with self understanding. After nearly a decade talking to thousands of near- and current retirees, we discovered a direct and powerful relationship among self awareness and retirement satisfaction. As we dug deeper, time and time again, we found people who were more in tune with who they are -- more aware of their personality traits and their ripple effects on planning - to be more satisfied retirees. Success in retirement starts with self-understanding. |
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The good news: it's never too late to enhance your self awareness. We've seen a sea-change in attitudes and satisfaction among people who got started later than sooner. Gain insights into your personality, and you will plan more effectively for an emotionally fulfilling retirement. Enhanced self-understanding helps you adjust to the many, inevitable changes that retirement brings. It jump-starts you on pursuing activities and goals that fit who you are, and on understanding what in your career provided fulfillment and, accordingly, what you'll need to replace in retirement. Unfortunately, the contra-positive applies as well: neglect to sharpen your self awareness, or go against valid insights you may gain, and risk failing at retirement. Once we grasped the fundamental importance of personality, we began building My Next Phase's personality-based approach to retirement planning. After in-depth development, testing and refinement with near- and recent retirees, we introduced our step-by-step, patent pending process for creating a personal, non-financial retirement plan. Gaining retirement-centric self-understanding calls for insight into seven key personality traits linked to the crucial tasks of a life transition. The better you understand your personality - specifically, how you navigate the stress of change and what you need for personal fulfillment - the more effectively you can evaluate your options for the future and plan a new phase that suits you. Personality consists of your individual planning style; how you interact with people; how you manage stress; how you make decisions; what gets you energized; how you process information; and other personal habits and preferences that remain relatively constant over time and situations. In all, the unique combination of traits that make you, well, you. Why does personality matter to retirement planning? Simply put: who you are determines what fulfills you - and what doesn't. For instance, if you have an outgoing social style, spending a long time alone at an isolated mountain cabin won't fulfill you; outgoing individuals have high needs for social contact. Conversely, if you have an independent activity style, joining a big community service team likely won't satisfy you (unless you can direct the action), because independent people have high needs for autonomy. Get a better handle on your personality traits, and you'll choose activities that fit who you are. They also help you create understanding of the blind spots that often trip you up and lead to dead ends as you plan. Digging into your personality frees takes some work. It's a self-conscious exercise that calls for paying attention to personal habits, preferences and behaviors that have become automatic. It's worth the work, and then some. There's help, in the form of Understanding Yourself, the self-reflective, first part of the My Next Phase program Take this step, and you'll be well on your way to your next phase, developing a powerful retirement plan right for only one person: you. 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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