Are you too scared to retire?

Does retirement scare you?

I ask because fear of retirement is something I hear over and over again.  Clients often tell me that their work gives them purpose and a sense of identity, something they really can’t imagine life without.

My response to their concerns is this… at some point you will have to retire from the work you do now, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop working completely or lose your sense of purpose or identity.  Quite the opposite, in fact.

Believe me, I know.

I retired age 52, following an illness and two operations.  The ‘honeymoon period’ lasted about a year – golf, tennis, long lunches, trips away – the sense of freedom was amazing.  But then life started to slow down, time dragged and soon I just ‘wasn’t myself’, physically or mentally. I woke up one morning and ‘unretired’ and I’ve never looked back.

Now, in my mid-sixties, I’m a mindset mentor for retired and retiring baby boomers.  Through workshops and courses, I help them create plans for their retirement filled with the things that make them want to jump out of bed in the morning – full of energy, purpose and zest for life.   They’re no longer too scared to retire, they absolutely can’t wait to.

Take Karen Baxter, a nurse from England.  This is what she said to me after completing my 3-day bootcamp…

“It’s given me a new perspective on what I want my future to look like. I’m in a state of excited anticipation.”

Now Karen wasn’t scared of retirement.  Not one bit.  She couldn’t wait to start living a very different life.  Her problem was this.  She felt ‘tied’ to the successful business she’d built with her best friend.  Tied to her family who live nearby and worried about those around her if she cut her ‘ties’ and moved away.  That was before the bootcamp.

After it, she walked away with a plan.  A map for the rest of her life.  Something that filled her with joy, excitement and exhilaration.  I didn’t change her mindset or tell her what to do.  She did that all by herself, by looking at life from a different perspective.

If you can relate to Karen, or you’re just wondering what your life will look like in five or ten years’ time, then why not try my program for yourself?  Like me, you may have retired and are now wishing you hadn’t.  Let me help you find a different path.

My courses and workshops are based around my D.A.R.E. method which challenges you to DARE to rebel against conventional approaches to retirement… and choose to prosper instead.

The four steps of D.A.R.E. are Discover, Assimilate, Rewire, and Expand. We learn about retirement.  What it is and what it is not.  We begin to understand how our mind works and we use that knowledge to imagine that we’re living our dream future right now, walking away with a plan of how to make it a reality.

So how do we get to that point?  I have an 8-week course which you can either do live with me or in your own time and I also condense the material into a 3-day bootcamp.  ‘Bootcamp for Boomers’ is a fantastic space in which to learn about yourself and others.  It’s challenging, yes, but also hugely rewarding and great fun.  It’s a small intimate group and you can bring a friend or spouse for free.

If this sounds interesting, then you can find more details here.