From Reflection to Action: Your Retirement Review
Reviews, I think we all do them.
Some formally, others just in a moment of reflection. What if we treated our move towards retirement as a review? We have all come up with New Year's resolutions, other goals, and other aspirations. Essentially, we were reflecting on where we were, what we had or had not done, and what we wanted to improve.
What if we formally reviewed or reflected on our lives at retirement?
Why not? We have completed a phase of our lives, and I'm sure there are things we are so proud of and content with, and many that we want to experience, improve upon, or have regrets about. Well, let's spend some time and reflect on those.
This reflection will be valuable. I'm certain your full ambition for the next phase of your life isn't to sit around and watch TV. Also, I think we don't just want to be someone who travels for travel's sake. Dig deep.
Here are some categories to consider:
Relationships - how are my relationships doing now? Are they where I want them to be with my family? Were all my friends work-friends, and now I must supplement with a new set of friends? What will that look like
Value / Contribution - what do I value in my life? What gives me meaning or purpose? I'm not sure what that is. Daniel Pink had a great suggestion: Email 5 people you know and ask them:
What do you think I'm good at?
How do you think I'll leave my mark on the world?
You will be surprised and happy with what you hear back.
Physical —how am I physically? I now have more time, so what can I specifically do? Hey, I SHOULD work out—commit to doing something.
Experiences - what kind of experiences do I want to have? How can I prioritize experiences over things? Create a simple chart with 5-year increments and write down what you want to do in those 5 years. Please keep it out and keep it in your constant view.
Spiritual - how do you want to be spiritually? This will be enlightening.
Treating your retirement as a great opportunity to review and plan is fantastic.
This is not the end of your life, just a new phase. Grab it and go.
Get Yourself Thinking with these Review Questions
We are all trying to put 2020 behind us and are looking forward to a better 2021. Just looking forward to next year is not going to automatically make it better. Hoping that ’21 set the bar so low that ’21 has to be better isn’t a full-proof strategy.
You have to make an intentional choice to make it better. If you can’t clearly state your mission, values, and goals, you need to do more thinking.
Here are questions that I have gathered from people like James Clear, Jim Afremow, and even Han Solo!, to review how things have gone in the past and how I want to intentionally experience the next year, month, day, etc.
I hope some of these questions provide you with inspiration to pause and think about where you are and what you want your future to look like.
Imagine the most important goal or project you are working on right now. Fast forward six months. Imagine the project has failed. Why did you fail?
If you keep living the way you are, what will your life look like in 20 years?
Do I take 100 percent responsibility for my successes and failures?
Have you played the victim? And how can you take responsibility for how you feel?
Imagine the most important goal or project you are working on right now. Fast forward six months. Imagine the project has failed. Why did you fail?
What limits have you placed on your own success? How can you break through these perceived limits?
When the rules don't work you break Them. Where do you need to stop doing the same thing so you can get a better result? Don't always follow conventional thinking when there is a better way.
How will I handle my current situation like a champion?
What will I do now to get to where I want to be in the future?
How I do my Annual Review
Every year I take some time and review the prior year as a first step towards planning the coming year. Here is how I did my 2015 Annual Review.
Words of the Year
At the end of the year I write three words that describe the previous year. I described 2015 as a year of:
- Sorrow
- Planning
- stressful
I lost my father in 2015 and that coupled with a tough year at work provided the sorrow and stressful theme. I spent a lot of time planning for my website and my triathlon training, too much in my estimation, so that is the planning theme.
I compare those three words to the three I set while planning the year. I had set:
- Planning
- Health
- Execution
Annual Summary
With these six words as a backdrop I write out an Annual Summary of the year. From 50,000 feet how did the year feel? How did it go? I really consider this brainstorming as I just write what comes to mind. It is important for me that I do no mid sentence editing or culling of my thoughts. I just let my thoughts flow as I think about last year. Typically these are memorable items, events, people or activities that took place.
Journal Review
After the Annual Review I go through my journal for the year to help jog my thoughts on other things that took place. In hindsight I think things seem better or not as bad as they seemed at the time. That is why I review my journal to really capture the emotions and reactions I had at the time. Much more powerful than the antiseptic hindsight review at the end of the year.
Goal Review
After I get my summary down I go into a deep review of the goals I set. Each year I typically put together a visual timeline on when I am going to meet certain goals so I include that image in my annual review.
I list out each goal I set for the year. I include:
Goal - what was the specific goal.
The Why - I am a firm believer that if you don't have a big enough why you will not make the progress you want. So this is the why I must achieve this goal.
System and Processes to Achieve - This describes the specifics of how I am going to achieve the goal. This also includes what will I put in place almost daily to move my trajectory forward.
Tracking Progress and Process - How am I going to track my progress including what am I going to track and specifically how — (google spreadsheet, tally sheet , etc.)
Trajectory
Under each goal I type one question to answer - What was my trajectory? Did I improve and move towards the goal or away from it? This in my mind is key as I view goal achievement as a process not an end state. If I improved myself and moved forward then I consider that a success. I do this for each goal. I give myself an arbitrary rating between 1 - 10 on each goal.
Quick Summary
The last thing I do is finish up with a paragraph or two of how I view last year. I find this important to do last as it changes a bit after I have done the 50,000 foot review, and the specific goal review. This year's summary highlighted that I thought I had too many goals, that I spent too much time planning and not enough doing. I also had a lot of frustration from work and from the injuries I experienced.
After I have this drafted I let it sit for at least 2 days and then go back. I take a clean page or file and bullet point out thoughts about what happened last year and compare the list to what I had documented? Anything new, anything different? If so I flesh them out and add them to the summary.
After that I review the document one more time and I scan it in and if it is a file I convert it to PDF.
Summary
I use this Overall Summary as the beginning for the current year's goal and system brainstorming session. Did I have too many goals? Do I continue to have the same goals year after year and don't act on them? This guides my goal setting process and helps me refine my process and set me up for success. Improve the trajectory year after year. Consider this the annual 2% improvement.