Positive Psychology = Happy life
Planning for a happy retirement
How many people are really psychologically ready for retirement? We all do the financial planning bit, but how many are really ready in their minds.
There are a number of stages to retirement. I have it broadly down to 5
1) Planning - You plan, you see your financial advisor, you make a will, you make investments and so on. You then plan your big holiday that you are going to take when you get that lump sum. You tell all your friends and colleagues you are off, maybe even boast about it. You fill out all the HR forms, had back the company assets and then even plan your retirement party – Don’t forget the Speech!
2) Honeymoon period – someone once told me the leaving party can be seen as a marriage ceremony and then the time after is the honeymoon. Often, we take a big holiday on retiring, go travelling and visit friends and family. Some of us even look forward to revisiting or even starting new hobbies. But like a good honeymoon this only lasts a short period.
3) Disenchantment – So now you find retirement is not one big holiday! This period can come with a feeling of letdown. It can bring loneliness, boredom. A feeling of uselessness, having no purpose in life and disillusionment. This is the hardest but where you really do need to ReFocus and..
4) Then comes the period of reorientation, building a new identity. This is the most difficult stage and takes time and effort to accomplish.
Who am!?
What is my purpose?
Am I still useful?
It is at this stage many people need help to find themselves again to ReFocus and…
5) Finally, we move on, a new landscape is created and we find a new sense of purpose, we once again feel we are in control and gain the structure to our lives again and above all get our confidence back.
So how do we do this well we create ‘Positive emotion’ Expose yourself to as many positive things as possible – Joy, Gratitude, Serenity, Interest, Hope, Pride, Amusement, Inspiration, Awe and Love.
We need to be Engaged – if we are totally engaged in something the time will fly.
I work with professionals coming up to retirement or recently retired. To help them deal with and plan for the future, so they seamlessly move into their retirement with structure and control.
