Life Planning and Retirement 2

As I said yesterday, money is a tool that should enable its owners to live lives they love, create memories they treasure and establish legacies that express their deepest values. The problem is, most people do not have a clear picture of what they truly want.  What are your goals? I imagine that they are fine goals, but are they  enough to enable you to look back at the end of your life and say: “I have lived a rich life that was truly my own, and I would not have changed a thing.”

Retirement Planning Starts with the “Why”:

One of the most popular TED Talks of all time is Simon Sinek's  “Start with the Why.” In his talk, he explains that most companies market to consumers with messages explaining “what” they do, followed by “how” they do it. This is because “what” and “how” can be clearly communicated using the logical parts of our brains. The only problem is that humans are typically not motivated by logic, but by emotion. Mr. Sinek makes a compelling case that the most important place to start is with “why.” Why we do what we do reveals what is in our hearts, and that is where true motivation and fulfillment lie.

NYU psychologist Jonathan Haidt uses a lovely analogy to explain both the logic and the emotional side of our nature: the emotional side is the elephant, the rational side is the rider. The rider of the elephant looks like he or she is in charge, but when there's a disagreement between the elephant and the rider, the elephant usually wins. The point here is emotions – positive and negative–are powerful, and you discount them at your own peril. 

As you are now retired or thinking of retirement it is important that you take the time to explore your own story. Telling your life story is important because your story has the power to inform, inspire, guide, persuade, entertain, educate, open hearts, create laughter/tears, heal and transform.

I was recently at an Elders Indigenous gathering in Vancouver and was struck by the range of experience and the collective wisdom of these people. Elders in traditional communities, through stories, fairy tales and myths, passed down through the generations their customs, culture and wisdom to ensure the survival of the community.  

Today we have lost the idea that Elders have wisdom, the industrial age undermined our connection to nature and the individual is now left to fathom out by themselves how to transition through never-ending change.  The ecological crisis, climate change, ethnic conflict, global warfare, financial debt crisis are all examples of immediate challenges for today’s communities.  Rituals and stories help us as individuals to see the world more clearly and equally make sense of our ‘place’ within it, so we owe it to our children and grandchildren to tell our stories so they can learn to navigate the complexities of their new reality.