Filling The Blank Page: How to Build a Retirement of Passion and Purpose

​Introduction

We each have something we love. Something that fills our souls as much or more as it fills our time. When we follow that passion and use it to help others, we will truly change the world for the better.

For myself, that thing is writing. I happily spend hours putting words on a page. (Hopefully, someone actually reads those words at some point.)

This book is the result of my passion for writing and my desire to help you build a retirement life that fills you with joy and a sense of purpose.

Welcome to the rest of your life.

You may want to grab a notebook or something you can write on as there are several exercises throughout the book where I ask you to write something down.

Why You Need to Plan for More Than the Finances

Life is your artwork.  ​Create it! ​No one else can do it for you.  ​You create it by seeing life and living it to its fullest.

Max Ehrmann

As a working mom, there has always been that pull between trying to give enough time to my family vs enough time to my job. 

At work, there were always goals and deadlines. Things that made it clear whether I was successful (or not.)

As a parent, not so much.

Now, we are facing retirement, and the rules have changed again.

For many of us, the lure of retirement is about no longer having to juggle so many competing demands. We are excited about the possibilities! But there is a fear around how we will spend our time. 

Will retirement be boring?

Popular media paints retirement as this blissful time of never-ending vacation. We get to do what we want, when we want, and in the way we want to do it.

FREEDOM!!

As it turns out, an endless vacation loses its luster after about 6 months to a year.

Many people jump into retirement with only a vague idea of how they will spend their time and no real plan. 

​How do we keep that initial excitement we feel during the first few months of freedom and build a life we love?

WHAT OUR IDEAL RETIREMENT looks like will be different for each of us. 

We need to understand what we will be losing when we retire (routine, identity, relationships, power, purpose) and have a plan to replace them with people and activities that we love.

​Here is a sample plan for retirement:

●  Participating in activities that fill me with excitement and allow me to serve others using my talents. 

●  Spending time with people who support and love me.

●  Living a life with purpose and passion that keeps me excited to get out of bed each day.

IT IS A GREAT PLAN but very general. Identifying and listing specific steps and options will help us get from here to there. 

Let’s start planning the rest of your life!

Why am I so Nervous about Retirement?

The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.

Oprah Winfrey ​

For years, on each of my family vacations, I would think about how much more we could travel after we stopped working. All the places we can see around the world. 

I would think about how much fun it would be to spend more than a week in any given location – can you imagine spending a month in Italy or three months in Australia? No need to rush from one activity to the next, cramming as much as possible into our limited time. We could relax and enjoy the adventure!

Each summer, when we are overwhelmed with yard work (my husband is an avid gardener, and we almost always have a landscape project each summer), I think about how much better it will be when we don’t have to work our gardening schedule around our jobs.

These are the kinds of things many people think about when they consider retirement. All the positive aspects of getting an extra 40 hours (or more) per week to do what we want with. 

We have kind of a vague idea of what we think we will enjoy doing.

But Retirement isn’t what you think. 

​Phase 1 – Enjoy the Freedom!

The first phase of retirement is the honeymoon phase, where all our dreams can come true. This phase usually lasts 6 – 12 months. It is what we have been envisioning:

FREEDOM!

We enjoy not having to get up with the alarm clock, not having to go to boring meetings, and not having to listen