This post is a duplication of our newsletter, The Weekly Reset, where we review a key theme each week. In the spotlight this week: You need to set more goals than ever in retirement. What do you think about goals in retirement?
A note from Johann
Setting more goals in retirement
It’s a time when you can make what you long for come true.
The idea of retirement seems to have many negative connotations. They almost always allude to a period in your life when there is nothing meaningful to do. There is no longer an occupation. There is only an empty agenda with boring consequences. People who have had busy fulfilling lives are used to having many responsibilities with phone calls to return and full diaries. Suddenly, at the end of a full-time working life, it all dries up and nobody calls for your expertise anymore.
In response, some just folks sit it out and stay satisfied to do nothing. Others find it quite isolating, and too often, very lonely.
There is a way out. What makes full-time work stimulating and usually engaging is that it almost always revolves around working towards specific goals. Goals that may make a profit for the company, or keep a patient healthy and well, or may make learners achieve more distinctions. Whatever the occupation, it stays in focus because of the goals that have to be achieved.
Transferring this habit of goal setting in your career into the retirement time is a simple task. All it needs is the commitment to achieve something specific and then planning the route to its success. Let’s say it is to go on a bucket list sea voyage. Instead of just longing for it and feeling like it may never happen, set some concrete goals and commit to a plan to make it happen. The sea voyage itself is the goal, but breaking it down into several small, more manageable goals. Choose your desired route. Find out which visas you need. Set money aside each month. Step by step, goal by goal, you will get to your desired outcome with certainty.
This same process can launch any of what you long for and it can all be done by setting the goal for its achievement. The process is to think of something you really want, work out what you would need to achieve it, and define it as a specific goal. Setting goals and working to achieve them is the best occupation in retirement. You will be much more likely to achieve them and have a happy, productive retirement.
Johann
Our top pick this week:
Motivation Might Be The Key to Healthy Aging
“Love it or loathe it, aging is an unavoidable part of life for all of us. So it’s no surprise that scientists are fascinated by how we age—and how we can make it a more fulfilling experience.
A new supplemental issue to The Journals of Gerontology, Series B, says motivation is a key part of healthy aging. Funded by the Swiss foundation Velux Stiftung the supplement consists of nine articles addressing one or more components of a motivational model of healthy aging.1
“It is our hope that it inspires both strands of research and, with this, ultimately will make a contribution to addressing the question how people can age healthily and fulfill their potential well into old and very old age,” wrote the authors.
The Importance of Healthy Aging
Considering the increase in old and very old adults, understanding factors that contribute to healthy aging is essential for societies as well as individuals, says Alexandra M. Freund, PhD, professor of psychology at University of Zurich and lead guest author for the supplemental issue. “We all hope to live well into old age in a way that fosters not only our psychological well-being but allows us to continue living meaningful lives and to pursue our goals,” she adds.
We all hope to live well into old age in a way that fosters not only our psychological well-being but allows us to continue living meaningful lives and to pursue our goals.
— ALEXANDRA M. FREUND, PHD
Dr. Freund says goals are key to healthy aging. “Goals are the states people deem personally desirable and want to achieve,” she explains. “They provide direction and meaning, they motivate us to acquire new skills or maintain functioning, and give us a sense of agency and control to shape our lives according to our values.”
Click here to read the whole article on Very Well Mind
Our Spotlight video:
You Need To Set More Goals Than Ever in Retirement
We look at the power and necessity of goals as we age. Motivation is a key ingredient for wellbeing and establishes a positive future outlook – an important element as we live longer lives and generally enjoy longer retirement periods. Setting and achieving goals is a powerful mechanism for staying motivated and can help us weather the challenges of the transition we make into retirement and look to the years ahead of us.
Click play to watch our spotlight video of the week
Other Highlights of The Week:
Personal Goal Setting
Planning to live your life your way
“Many people feel as if they’re adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don’t seem to get anywhere worthwhile.
A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven’t spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven’t set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!
Why Set Goals?
Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the most of your life.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you’ll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence , as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you’ve set.
Starting to Set Personal Goals
You set your goals on a number of levels:
• First you create your “big picture” of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.
Staying on Course
Once you’ve decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.”
Click here to read the article on Mindtools
Weekly Poll
This week’s poll: Are you getting enough sleep?
Option A: My sleep is restless.
Option B: I am getting less sleep as I age.
Option C : I have always slept well.
Click here to answer the question in our Facebook group
Last week’s poll and finding: What do you think about goals in retirement?
Option A: Retirement is my goal – 8%
Option B: I’m happy with my existing goals – 17%
Option C : I will make more life goals when I get to retirement – 23%
Option D : I am actively working on new retirement goals already – 52%
Most Popular Post of The Week
The Tiny Habits That Change Everything
Click here to listen to the podcast on artofmanliness.com
Most Popular Quote of The Week
Retirement should not be a time when goals fall away but rather when we shift to take on new kinds of goals
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