“Happy, meaningful retirements don’t just happen,” says career counselor Robin Ryan. “You need to develop and implement a plan that allows you to enjoy life to its fullest.”
Take Barb Foster for example. An energetic, vivacious lady with a big smile, Foster worked in technology sales. When she got laid off, she sought career counseling. Foster worried that it would be very hard to find a permanent job because she was 56 and her last two positions were as an independent contractor.
“It seemed to me that this career might be done for her,” said Ryan. “She was burned out and needed to consider a different option. She could retire, as her husband had an excellent paying position. So we began to plan out what her retirement reinvention would look like.”
For 20 years, best-selling author Ryan has helped clients market their careers and their lives. Now, in Retirement Reinvention, she shatters the myths of retirement. The old model of retirement is changing. The majority of retirees today are seeking fun and meaningful ways to spend their time.
Ryan is the author of seven career books. Hailed by The Boston Globe as “America’s top job search expert,” she has appeared on over 2,000 TV and Radio shows including Oprah, Dr. Phil, CNN, ABC News, Fox News, NBC Nightly News, and NPR; and has spoken to over a thousand live audiences on improving their lives and achieving greater career success.
“To begin developing a new future, Barb and I discussed her interests and one stood out—painting,” recalled Ryan. “She loved it and painted in her free time. Together we determined this creative hobby would be the basis of her new part time business. We discussed how she could paint landscapes and flowers that would appeal to consumers. Then we talked about community festivals where she could show her work and sell it.”
Most of the festivals required an entrance fee, so Foster did a lot of research and entered a couple, to try it out. She sold several paintings and even got a couple of custom orders. Several months later, she launched a website for her business, Create Your Wow (www.createyourwow.com), and started a Facebook page for her customers and those interested in what other festivals she’d be showing at.
“Marketing a meaningful retirement takes effort,” says Ryan. “In fact, many people actually become a failed retiree. That is someone who is depressed with long days ahead and no fun or meaningful activities that they partake in.”
To avoid failure, here are five retirement reinvention action steps recommended by Ryan:
- Develop your life plan. Waiting until you are finished with your job is not the time to start your planning. It’s a smoother transition if you begin about 1 year in advance and think through key questions such as: Where will I live? Who will I do things with? What activities do I want to do? What about traveling? What would I like to learn how to do? Keep the plan flexible.
- Explore a hobby. Foster enjoyed painting. And she found a way to make it commercial and turn it into a part time business. You don’t need to start a business but you sure can expand your favorite hobby. Gardening is most popular along with doing other things like photography, bike riding, swimming and reading. Men and women alike often flock to the local library for their book club events.
- Learn something new. Baby boomers are interested in keeping their minds sharp and learning new things. Whether it is taking up a new sport like yoga or learning a foreign language, you don’t need to look farther than your local community center, library, state colleges or continuing education departments. Many colleges offer seniors steep discounts (a lot of college courses are free as you just audit the class and don’t take any tests). There are many online courses and free tutorials on YouTube to help you learn something new too.
- Give back. What social problem matters to you? Do you care about children, homelessness, or pollution? The world has many problems that you can volunteer to help out on. Start at your community level. Someone who cares about homelessness might work with a church that clothes the homeless folks or serves meals.
- Do your bucket list. You need to really consider what is realistic and should be on your bucket list now as you head into retirement. These activities need to be ones you have the ability and resources to do. Say goodbye to being a pro baseball player or prima ballerina. You might want to attend these types of events but you are now too old to actual achieve these goals.
Think about what really matters. What are the things that if you don’t do them you’ll truly regret it? These ideas belong on the bucket list. And there is one more step in this process. Write a date after the activity so you’ll have a hard deadline by which you will have to complete the activity.
“This isn’t a fantasy list, this is your to-do list so make sure you have things that are important to you and start doing them immediately,” says Ryan.
More information is available at www.myretirementreinvention.com.
