Thinking About Your Retirement Necessities vs. Desires

Orca Whales Cruising in Tandem, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska; 2012.

Their Realization Throughout Your Life: Key Elements  to Achieve Personal Fulfillment

It is the case that at times in life, it may be necessary to forgo satisfying a desire to enable the commitment of time, effort and perhaps financial resources to accomplish an essential need.

 This is a hallmark primarily of those earlier years when life’s responsibilities required such choices. Those choices often meant that wants or desires that were considered non-essential were put off. Perhaps they were never fulfilled and hopefully, simply deferred and remembered in the well of your memory.

I know that fulfilling those myriad responsibilities cheerfully, whether at home, work or community, springs forth from the nature of your character. Indeed, your cumulative experience and satisfaction derived from meeting your responsibilities further strengthens and develops  your character. So much so, that your focus on various achievements becomes a way of life, a deeply engrained habit…as it should be.

And while fun and hobbies are routinely deferred, any regrets are overshadowed by the satisfaction of simply doing the right thing.

Visions of Fulfillment

But as you begin to envision your life after the end of your career, it is natural to dig into the well of desires deferred and re-evaluate your wish to fulfill them.

It is at that time that you may find it somewhat unusual to shift your focus more toward those desires. After all, after a lifetime of deferring them, you are probably going to need to learn how to place them in a relative perspective at a time when you have the ability to do so.

One of the hallmarks of life after the end of career is the very significant decrease in what is required of you by others, usually regardless of occupation or profession. This is accompanied by your increased ability to choose how, when and where to apply your time and energy.

I think of things like hobbies and the pursuit of interests long deferred. These are really nice to experience but they are not essential. As such, they are not a necessity. As desires, it is good and wholesome to experience the sense of rewards you have earned. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that those activities are not likely to provide fulfillment in the way that your career did.

Your occupation is a source of satisfaction that plays an important role in realizing your potential. In a different way, so is the fulfillment of your non-essential desires.

When your career ends, you will very likely need to continue to somehow apply your skills, knowledge and wisdom that you applied at work during the course of your career.

So it is that in this next phase of your life, as before, there exists a need for you to discern and create a wholesome balance between your needs and desires.

Perhaps this should be considered a way that life provides you a new season of opportunity to apply your experience and wisdom to the task of adjusting how you balance your life.

The goal of that adjustment is to continue to actualize your potential at this stage of your life.

My Favorite Season

Consider autumn, as I prefer to call it, for such a grand time mandates the use of a comparably elegant word.

Autumn presents itself as yellow, orange and red leaves that adorn, then leave majestic trees bare. Consider that it is really a time of nature’s rest, that is emphasized by the cold winters that follow and drive us to seek warmth and comfort.  It is a prelude to an effusion of green leaves that restore those trees to a life of aesthetic majesty that never really went away…they were just preparing in repose.

So it is with you and the phases of life. Especially your latter years.

In the course of your lifetime, you have experienced unexpected cycles of trials and triumphs. The trials strengthened and developed your character. The triumphs taught you to take proper pride in your successes all the while balancing them with humility and grace.

Then there was the gratitude you most assuredly expressed to those who lifted you up in so many possible ways. In so doing, you filled their hearts with joy as you and they rejoiced further for your mutual goodwill.

These were the years of preparation for your latter life when you will be able to more readily balance your needs and deserved wants.

As you think about this, please consider that although it is healthy to increase the fulfillment of your desires, your need for fulfilling certain needs will persist.

One such need that is often overlooked is the fulfillment of your potential.

You might think that this is not so important. After all, your have been striving at that most of your life.

What is not so apparent, at first, is that this is a real and ongoing need. Those who recognize this and thoughtfully seek a healthy balance between needs and wants are often those that experience a more fulfilling life after their end of career.

There is a reason why these real life statements are all too often heard:

 “You can only play so much golf.”

“I thought moving to (fill in the name of state) would keep me busy.”

Think about those you know or have heard about that had similar experiences. They are the testaments of hopes and dreams unrealized.

Why does this happen?

Your Enduring Identity and Life’s Purpose

Let’s examine this, starting with what I describe as core ideas:

Your work life provided you the means to apply your skills and experience satisfaction. To the extent that you were purposeful in realizing your potential, your occupation or profession was one means to achieve it.

For most of us, although the end of career is a point in time, our internal identity will endure. Clarity of Who we are, our character and life’s purpose remain intact. It is What we do or don’t do that changes.

The feeling of satisfaction derived from fulfilling your purpose as well as your potential will continue to be something you will probably continue to need to experience…as is commonly the case. That satisfaction was a major element in the fuel mix that nourished you during challenging times throughout your career. It is natural that this familiar satisfaction is a true necessity that you will need to continue to experience.

Yet, it is commonly not fully recognized.

Instead, often the focus in on “staying busy,” primarily with fulfilling wants that have been long deferred.

And yet, the reality is that it is essential to fulfill both. The key is to recognize these natural, healthy needs and fulfill them in a balanced, effective way.

You are world’s expert on this matter. You can discern, choose and celebrate!

Your desires are not a substitute for your necessities.

The Point of the Matter

The point of seeking clarity about what is or is not a necessity is that it provides you a means to better understand the purpose of your End of Career Transition. Fundamentally, it is a means to create a new phase of your life that is characterized by renewal and fulfillment. A  critical feature of your future lifestyle is that it provides you the means to in some way continue to feel the satisfaction you experienced throughout your career while simultaneously having lots of fun.

Therein lies the importance of your developing clarity about these matters and making sure that your Post Career Lifestyle Plan _TM is developed before the Post Career Financial Plan _TM.

As you do so, you may find that your financial resources may require various adjustments in either or both plans, while ensuring that your necessities and desires are met.

PS: Do you want to learn more from me about how to create and experience a fulfilling end of career Transition? To help you, I provide consulting services tailored to your specific needs. Click here to apply for a complimentary strategy session.

Soft Whispers of Creation - Carson Canyon, CA. 2013.

© Enrique Fernandez, M. D.