Money and health the big concerns as living to 100 becomes a reality, new survey showsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\nThis later phase in our working life is fascinating and underexplored. For the past year, I\u2019ve been interviewing Ireland\u2019s top leaders about their third-age journey, especially about what worked, what didn\u2019t and when they started to think about it. <\/p>\n
Many excel in this life stage, reinvigorated by a new sense of purpose in their community and family, a less structured work day and more time for physical activity. <\/p>\n
For some, though, a failure to design the future, or a flippancy about all it entails, led to a more difficult journey than necessary.<\/p>\n
To gather more stories on this topic \u2013 and to help people use a playful approach to this next phase \u2013 I\u2019ll be hosting a webinar for the Institute of Directors called Designing Your Third Act and asking you to email me your insights.<\/p>\n
Designing happiness<\/p>\n
Retirement is rarely an ending, it\u2019s just an underdesigned beginning. And we can design it for happiness, joy and even delight. <\/p>\n
Our lives can often be the fulfilment of others\u2019 expectations, not necessarily our own. Parents often decide on our schooling and, in some cases, they steer us into our careers too. Sometimes retirement is the first time we ever ask ourselves: What do I want? What makes me happy? Who was I before work, partnership and children?<\/p>\n
These are big questions without easy answers but a return to the playfulness and experimentation of our youth can help us find solutions years before we actually retire. <\/p>\n
Instead of treating retirement as a problem solved only by hitting a big pension number, why not use playful learning techniques and little experiments to bring your next phase into focus? <\/p>\n
Over the past few years I\u2019ve tried the following techniques: design thinking principles, Lego Serious Play methodologies, drawing exercises and card games, so that the third age \u2013 which for me is five to 10 years away \u2013 becomes a fun and interactive personal challenge explored with curiosity.<\/p>\n
My personal experiments over the past five years have included learning to sail and getting my international skipper\u2019s licence, weekly date nights with my husband, playing the Chinese tile game Mahjong weekly with new friends, trying padel and pickleball, getting a monthly deep tissue massage, travelling by canal boat to see art exhibitions and ancient cities, setting up a weekly sea swim and sauna group with my girlfriends and spending a month or more abroad with my husband each year. <\/p>\n
Before this playful period, I didn\u2019t think we had time for all this self-indulgent foolishness. We were busy working full-time, minding the kids and managing the household: who had time to dream or plan for the future?<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re curious, you treat retirement as an open question rather than a fixed identity you have to defend<\/p>\n
Neither of us has any plans to retire soon \u2013 or limitless funds \u2013 but these little tests are wonderful experiences together and they show us individually what energises us and what drains us. It has also made us more intentional in our life choices, especially who we spend time with and what we do together each day, week, month and year. <\/p>\n
Now that our children are starting their careers and travel adventures, we know our plans will need to be flexible based on their life decisions, too.<\/p>\n
A time of renewal<\/p>\n
One theme appears consistently in the research, interviews and coaching: relationships. This might mean a partner, children, older relatives and friends, both old and new. <\/p>\n
How are you aligning your life to make sure that in your current career situation, you have the best chance of maintaining good personal relationships and long-term health? Do you need to make some changes?<\/p>\n
Maurice Pratt, the well-known businessman, told me that he tells friends and colleagues there are two questions you should never, ever ask your partner when you retire: \u201cwhat are we having for lunch?\u201d and \u201cwhere are you going?\u201d<\/p>\n
To avoid these disasters, I try to help clients develop five mindsets based on the Designing Your Life framework of Stanford University\u2019s Bill Burnett and Dave Evans: curiosity, action, reframing, awareness and radical collaboration.<\/p>\n
Curiosity. When you\u2019re curious, you treat retirement as an open question rather than a fixed identity you have to defend. The goal is shifting from \u201cWho am I if I am not my job?\u201d to \u201cWhat else can I discover about myself?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bias to action. This shows up when you prototype small experiences before committing to large, irreversible life decisions. For example, you can commit to trying a two-week volunteer stint at the local animal shelter before committing to a two-year board position. Test your assumptions in the real world with low risk.<\/p>\n
Reframing. In coaching, we talk about limiting or dysfunctional beliefs. When you name and dismantle personal, relational and systemic obstacles (fear, identity loss, finances, health, family expectations), you free yourself up for new experiences. Changing your thoughts from \u201cIt\u2019s too late to start something new\u201d to \u201cI have a blank canvas to design my next chapter\u201d gives you more energy for fun experiments.<\/p>\n
Awareness. Develop a way to track your energy and engagement daily. That might be through journalling, taking notes on your phone or using an app. Two minutes reflecting on your day helps show you what activities and environments actually give you life versus what drains you.<\/p>\n
Radical collaboration. Although we live on an island, we are not alone on an island. At work you\u2019ve relied on your colleagues. Now you need to lean on your family, friends and community. Other people\u2019s perspectives and working together on activities helps you recognise that you don\u2019t design your life alone; great ideas often come from collaborative brainstorming.<\/p>\n
Margaret E Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@cleareye.ie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who am I when I\u2019m no longer working every day? Am I still a professional if I\u2019ve retired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185,1793,6624],"class_list":["post-886608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}