Table of Contents
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Key Takeaways:
- Start with a clear vision of your ideal retirement; create a vision board or pick five priority themes to make your goals concrete and actionable.
- Rate your energy from 1 to 5 across Community, Growth, Giving Back, Health, and Finance to see where you are energized and where attention is needed.
- Define your top five core values using guided prompts, then align daily choices with those values to live more authentically.
- Journal through reflection questions about mentors, regrets, strengths, skills to learn, and lessons from failures to reveal what truly drives you.
Prefer to watch helpful content? Watch the video here:
Most people, baby boomers in particular, go through their lives living a life of duty. They spend most of their decades dedicating time, focus, and energy to their families and jobs… which is a completely noble and necessary role. Unfortunately, before you know it, your original dreams are locked up somewhere deep inside a hope chest… And by the time “retirement” years hit, there can be a bit of haziness where your identity and role seem unclear as you transition into this new period of life. When you look up “retirement advice” the majority of the search results come back with financial advice. And virtually no advice on how to find clarity in retired life. And while it’s a prudent practice to financially plan for your retirement, it’s the non-financial retirement advice that can really lift your life into your best next chapters and give your life more meaning, intention, fulfillment, and purpose. That’s why I’ve put together these 4 simple exercises — to help you find clarity so you can focus on meaningful activities during your retirement years.Exercise #1: Create your vision board
Your vision is a concrete representation of your desires and goals. Without solidifying a defined vision, it can become difficult to make yours a reality. TD Bank surveyed more than 1100 people and found that 67% believed that pictures of their goals will improve the odds they will achieve them. If you have the energy to go through an entire vision board process, great. Take the time to put together a physical or digital graphics collage to create a vision of your ideal retirement life — and get specific. Another option is to simply circle 5 topics from this list that fit your retirement vision:- Completing unfinished projects
- Learning a new skill
- Taking on a new challenge
- Developing a hobby
- Volunteering
- Consulting
- Starting a new business
- Working part-time
- Home projects
- Time with spouse
- Time with friends
- Time with family
- Relaxing
- Teaching
- Going back to school
- Mentoring others
- Traveling
- Exploring
- Playing
- Writing
Exercise #2: Rate your energy level across 5 core categories
Energy is everything when it comes to finding your passion and clarity in life. Energy is specifically something that you can generate from inside of you, so it’s uber important to pay attention to the people, places, and activities that give you energy vs. those that deplete you. When it comes to your ideal retirement lifestyle, I like to cover 5 key ingredients with students and clients of mine in this framework. Within each of the categories below, rate your energy level from 1-5, 1 being completely depleted and 5 being very fulfilled and energized.- Community – your relationships, social life and engagement in your community
- Growth – lifelong learning, new experiences, brain plasticity, overcoming challenges
- Giving Back – sense of purpose, legacy, volunteerism, serving, gifting and contributions
- Health – your diet, exercise, and physical, mental and brain health
- Finance – financial security, budgeting, having enough to fund your retirement
Exercise #3: Define your core values
There are a few ways to go about doing this. One way is to comb through a list of key core values (available in this Finding Clarity Workbook) and to circle 10 values, then whittle the most important values down to your top 5. Another way to do it is to answer some core value questions, like these:- Which 3 core values do you want to pass on to your children and grandchildren?
- What 3 core values do you want people to think of when they think of you?
- In just 3 words, what’s your philosophy for living?
- What are the 3 things you value the most?
- Imagine your dream day. What 3 emotions or values describe your experience?
Exercise #4: Answer finding clarity questions
Self-reflection in a written format can be very beneficial, especially if you take the time to dig deep and write out your honest answers that tend to be otherwise hidden away. Here are a few finding clarity questions to help you in this process:- Who is your favorite childhood mentor and what did you learn from him/her?
- What are your regrets? (if you need inspo, we surveyed almost 300 retirees about theirs)
- What are your strengths and biggest accomplishments?
- What are you not so good at? What would you like to learn?
- What’s a failure or mistake that you made and what did you learn from it?
