Hyrum W. Smith - Purposeful Retirement Workbook & Planner: Wisdom, Planning and Mindfulness for Your Happiest Years

Purposeful Retirement Workbook & Planner Purposeful Retirement Workbook & Planner Wisdom, Planning, and Mindfulness for Your Happiest Years Hyrum Smith Mango Publishing Coral Gables Copyright 2018 Hyrum Smith
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc. Cover Design: Roberto Nunez
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Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN: (print) 978-1-63353-812-2 (ebook) 978-1-63353-813-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947011
BISAC category code: FAM005000FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Life Stages / Later Years Printed in the United States of America Also by Hyrum Smith Purposeful Retirement: How to Bring
Happiness and Meaning to Your Retirement 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management The 3 Gaps: Are You Making a Difference? You Are What You Believe: Simple Steps to Transform Your Life Pain is Inevitable, Misery is Optional The Modern Gladiator Where Eagles Rest TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME TO RETIREMENT! Welcome to your time! No longer are you an unwilling subject to alarm clocks that ring too early, coworkers who act incompetently, and in-boxes that never stay empty. The day is yours to fillor not to fillas you choose. This is your time. As amazing as that sounds, retirement can also be unsettling. Its simply an odd creation of a modern society.

How do you go from daily, routine activity over a period of forty years or more to nothing just because you reached a certain age or a certain date on the calendar? How does it all just end? A job ending can and should be an exciting personal beginning. This is your time! What are you going to do with it? Whatever you choose to do, dont focus on the tire part of retirement. This is not the time to tire out. For decades youve made a difference in your home, in your community, in your office. Youve made a difference at both a personal and professional level. Dont stop now.

I dont know about you, but Im not going to let someone hand me a Social Security check and shoo me away. I am going to treat retirement as my time. I am going to ensure I make a difference with the time I am given. I will not go quietly. Don Henley THE REST OF YOUR LIFE CAN BE THE BEST OF YOUR LIFE The British have a saying, Who is she when shes at home? This idiom from across the pond points to something very importantwe show different faces to the world. In recent decades, we spend more time at the office than anywhere.

Thus, the face you show at work is very closely tied to your sense of self. Most of us spend around 50 years working, and whether you climbed the corporate ladder or spent your days at a trade you love, working-life is deeply encoded in your identity. There is also the social aspect, with friendships, rites of passage, shared goals, and close bonds from shared failures and successes. From your lunchtime chats over the years you no doubt know the names of your coworkers children, spouses, and maybe even their pets. They, in turn, know about your hopes and dreams, have weathered your career setbacks alongside you and have been there for you through it all. Many lifelong friendships have started at the workplace, to be treasured and maintained long after the job ends.

It is not so easy to simply drop this side of you as you enter this new phase of your life. The best advice I can pass along is that you are still you. You bring the same value to the world even when you stop going to work five days a week. In fact, you might now be able to contribute more in service to the world by giving back to others, a marvelous benefit that comes with the opportunity to manage your time in a different way. Its all in your hands, completely up to you. You have a choice, and my suggestion is that you embrace these years with zest.

Whatever you do, do not withdraw from life or sit around and wait for things to happen. Be passionate, not passive. The rest of your life can be the best of your life. Each day is an opportunity to improve your relationships, stimulate your mind, invigorate your body, and grow spiritually. Retirement can easily be an unbelievably bright future for you and your loved ones. You are not a has been, you are a will be.

Above all, be purposeful. Enjoy all that lies before you! HOW TO USE THIS BOOK This book isnt supposed to look pretty sitting on a table. This book is a tool for transforming your life. Write in it! Get it dirty! Use it for taking notes. Photocopy pages out of it. Try out your thoughts in the workbook sections.

Experiment in the planning sections. Measure your progress by recording your thoughts and results in the weekly planning and accomplishment section. Learn and grow. TURNING IN THE TITLE Weve all heard the stories. People facing immediate death never wish that they had spent more time at work. I believe these stories ring true because we all understand that we are more than a president, an accountant, an analyst, an assistant.

We are more. Being more does not end in retirement. In fact, retirement is the perfect time to add MORE to MORE. To leave a legacy. Who are you? You are more than a fancy job title. You have value simply by being a human being.

Youve always had this value and you always will. The danger comes when we allow ourselves to be defined by our job, our title, and the size of our paycheck. The danger comes when we ask, When it is gone, what is left? You are. You are left. You, with your skill, talent, and ability to make a difference. You.

Who are you? Life is full of changes. When we are no longer students, we adjust and change. When we choose to leave a career to raise a family, we adjust and change. When our last child leaves for college and we are left with an empty nest, we adjust and change. When we retire, its one more change. What is exciting about this change? You now have the opportunity to focus on the people and things that really matter! NOW IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO FIND CLARITY Research tells us that if we want to understand how we feel about something, we go a step beyond just thinking about it or even talking about it.

We write it down. We choose the deadline. We define the steps to get there. Through writing we are able to gain clarity. Our jumbled thoughts find their order on the page. Two camps.

What camp are you in? There are two retirement camps. Which one do you fall into? It has been my experience that in Camp One youll find people who have been planning and looking forward to retirement since the day they started their first real job. As they have gotten closer to THE DAY, theyve inserted a countdown as a screensaver on their work computer. And on the day they retire, they nearly dance out the door. In Camp Two there are people who do not go gentle into the good night. They go out the door kicking and screaming, their fingers tightly gripping the door jamb of their office because retirement looms before them like an empty abyss.