Boredom
Boredom 2020 Part 1. Curiosity.
Do you have childhood memories of long car trips (sitting in the back seat looking out the window when not arguing with a sibling); or visits to certain older relatives who could only deliver chin-chucks and pointless advice about how to be a nice person? Wasn’t it boring.
This type of boredom probably welled up from strong emotions of being trapped and lacking control. Can we call this situational boredom? (In the follow-up article I will identify a second type of boredom.)
In situational boredom you will also feel anxious and restless. Most of all you will be absent in your mind, as you daydream about other possibilities in that moment in time. Now let’s move beyond the instance of situational boredom to more enduring forms.
Suppose your job is not satisfying you, or your weekends seem to be devoid of desirable activities and you find yourself looking at the clock or reading the newspaper with neither enjoyment nor enlightenment. The aim is to try something radically different from your routine. Here are some ideas you can try out that may help you escape this entrenched form of boredom:
· Look at your neighbourhood in a different way. Linger to look at flowers, drink at a new coffee shop, walk down an unfamiliar street.
· Listen more closely to a friend’s point of view that you disagree with. Try to build a bridge of common beliefs, as you question your own.
· Do something that makes you feel uncomfortable. An example a friend gave me is learning to skate or rollerblade backwards. No thanks, but it sounds challenging.
Inside these three examples the word “curious” is embedded. Hence curiosity may be the antidote you need for your boredom.
The examples above are nothing more than a sample, but there are many more to try out and test to see if they suit you.
Retirement is certainly a time when you can feel bored. After all you have 7 days a week at your disposal. But if you open yourself to curiosity life in retirement doesn’t need to have you pining away under a cloud of boredom. Those first few years of retirement are too precious to waste.
You now have plenty of time to re-define your activities and re-orient the way you spend your day. Finally, the probability of sitting in the back of your parents’ car, or being press-ganged into visiting a great aunt has been severely trampled on by the march of time.
Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.
AAA Rating
Your personal AAA Rating
Money is relevant to retirement. We can’t deny it. Now that you are about to retire, or have retired recently, or are working part-time on your way there; you probably have a financial plan in place with your financial planner. Good, now for your lifestyle.
Your AAA Rating is how YOU answer this question:
Is your Annual income Adequate to your Aspirations?
What does this mean? Simply stated, ask yourself if your annual cash flow from your pension account (and other investments) can support the life you want to lead in retirement.
This will help you set the scope for your search for meaning, which is the ultimate goal in 64PLUS’s 4M process, by allowing you to rule in and rule out certain activities.
For example.
1) Not everyone will have an AAA Rating that allows unlimited first class travel.
2) However, most should be able to afford to take the educational courses they desire.
If you wish to discuss this and other retirement tips please contact me via the website.
Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.
Dunning Kruger
Dunning Kruger
Self-assessment is a dangerous activity. Have you noticed that most people believe they are good drivers, further that they are better than average. This is the Dunning Kruger effect.
Experiments have shown that in a random sample of drivers as many as 80% self-assess as above average. Shouldn’t the number be around 50%, and what has this got to do with retirement?
My research has shown me that most people rate their retirement as successful. Now I am not suggesting that there is any logical measure of what success in retirement even means. There are too many variations in personality and social and economical arrangements to make that feasible.
But this retirement self-rating strikes me as odd, and possibly another example of Dunning Kruger at work, and I think I can explain what is going on here. Retirement is so often thought of as a vacant space that comes after work in which not too much happens that is considered useful by our broader society. Therefore measured against that bleak metric any retirement would look great.
Retirement is not a vacant space. It can be an enormously exciting and productive time. This is where retirement coaching can benefit a person near or in retirement; simply because it puts some OBJECTIVITY into the analysis.
The retirement coach – with all of his/her experience - can help the client to see where to improve the postwork phase of life by understanding the dynamics involved.
Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.
10,000 days!!!!
10,000 days!!!! A lifetime of retirement.
Let’s do the math together. Suppose you plan to retire at 65 years of age. That sounds like a reasonable number for most people.
Now suppose you live to be 95. That is not unrealistic, it may even by pessimistic.
OK then how many days are there in these 30 years in total? Give or take, and rounding to the extreme, let’s say 10,000.
10,000 days!!!
That is definitely not a holiday. In fact can we call it a lifetime?
Would you really want those 10,000 days to unfold in their own random way with no logic? Is that what happened to you from when you were 20 to when you were 50?
I STRONGLY doubt it. In those years from 20 to 50 I feel sure you planned, contemplated, experimented and planned again. Your 10,000 days of retirement deserves the same treatment, in order for you to have a fulfilling retirement.
In conclusion 10,000 days DEMANDS thought, planning and action. That is where a retirement coach can help.
Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.
Finding Joy in Retirement
Can’t wait?
Get the first chapter free!
You’ll discover
4 key questions to help you discover new meaning in life after work.
Real stories, ideas and advice on making the most of the next phase of your life
Why effective retirement planning is about so much more than money.
Finding Joy In Retirement
It can be jarring going from working flat out one week to being newly retired the next. If you haven’t planned ahead, there’s every chance you’ll find the early stages of retirement mentally and emotionally tough.
In Finding Joy in Retirement, Jon Glass and David Kennedy share their unique perspectives on exactly what it takes to thrive when your career comes to an end.
Jon shares the ideas, tools, and methods he uses in his successful retirement coaching practice, 64 PLUS, to shift your thinking and open your eyes to the infinite possibilities of life after work. David then explores the lived experiences of older Australians, with interviews and inspiring stories about the challenges and triumphs of successful retirement transitions.
Building blocks for a successful retirement transition
Meaning
How will your purpose evolve, and what activities and relationships will give meaning to life?
Routine
How will you create a new routine that works for you, based on how busy or idle you wish to be?
Identity
How will your identity grow and flourish, and will your retirement be a time for reinvention?
Achievement
What new projects will you tackle, and what goals might you set that are meaningful to you?
Social Connection
How will you ensure opportunities for social interaction remain plentiful in retirement?
Validation
How will you define success, and what will you aim to accomplish in this new phase of life?
Meet the authors
Jon Glass, PhD
After a 30-year career as an executive in the investment management industry, Jon Glass was ready for a new chapter, but he wasn’t ready to retire. Rather than pursue a life of leisure, Jon established a retirement coaching consultancy, 64 PLUS, to share his experience and insights in order to help others make a successful retirement transition. Jon’s retirement coaching practice has featured in The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald, and he is a passionate advocate for the benefits of conscious preparation for life after work.
David Kennedy
David is a Principal Adviser at Hunter Wealth, a Sydney-based wealth advisory firm, and he is the author of End of the Retirement Age – an upbeat commentary on the reinvention of retirement, featuring inspiring stories of older Australians from all walks of life. David has discussed retirement trends on ABC Radio Sydney, 6PR News Talk Perth, and 3AW Melbourne, and his views on retirement planning have appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, and Financial Observer. He writes regularly for Starts at 60.
The truth about retirement coaching
SNAPSHOT: A short observation on retirement
What do we know?
Everyone needs a:
dentist
plumber
But did you know that EVERYONE in the age range 55-70 WILL benefit from engaging with a retirement coach, in order to work out their MEANING and PURPOSE in retirement.
A period that may last for 30 years or more!
Please call 0409 116 766 to discuss further.
A nice interview with me...enjoy
VIDEO
Watch this video with The Inside Network to gain insight into the 64PLUS coaching methodology
About You-listen to my guest talk about his experience with retirement
LISTEN: A podcast
Perspectives on retirement: needs, emotions, self-talk and behaviour.
READ: This article for some perspectives on retirement
https://www.superguide.com.au/in-retirement/perspectives-on-retirement#