How Will You Live Your Possibility Years?

In my book, Second Act Soul Calls - Your Guide for the Re-invention of Your Life at Midlife and Beyond with Passion, Purpose and Possibilities I make the case against conventional retirement and instead suggest that since we are all living an extra twenty or thirty years longer than our parents generation that we need to think of these years as our Possibility Years.  I call them this because of the gifts our generation has been given.  Most of us will this have extra time, a secure income - income from several sources including Social Security and investments - and we will have energy due to all the medical and other breakthroughs that have become the norm in recent times.  In addition, most of us by the time we reach our possibility years will no longer have children in the nest or continuing responsibilities for them, at least not in terms of significant time, energy or money.

Time - Money - Energy - What Will You Do with These Gifts?

To continue to use a paradigm that was put in place when people retired and lived only a few more years and in fact, in most cases, could no longer work due to poor health, is to disregard the vitality and value of those who are now reaching retirement age or who are already there and particularly those who are now in midlife and beginning to think and plan for this time of life.  The social program that spawned retirement was created as a stop-gap measure between frail old age and death.  According to The New York Times the idea of retirement as an official governmental program didn't come along until the mid 1930's.  Before that everyone worked until they dropped or moved in with family.  But in 1935 President Roosevelt initiated official retirement. But in modern times, should able bodied people live out the last twenty or thirty years of their lives on a perpetual vacation or is there a better way?  I wrote my book to get people at midlife and beyond to look at this time of life in a new way.  I see this extra time and the money and energy that usually comes along with it as a gift, one that could actually be lived with passion and  purpose. I see this as a gift since we are then given this second chance to do something soulful with our lives, something meaningful and with purpose and to do it for the greater good and that something is some kind of work.. 

The Seven Possible Paths to Follow in the Possibility Years 

When it comes to planning for the Possibility Years its best to start on this at midlife, whether this means you actually figure out your soul's call then and get to it or you begin at that point to move in that direction. What I have found working with people is that the kind of work one does in these years comes in seven basic categories:  

1. Artistic - Music, Dance, Painting, Sculpture, Writing, Singing and other Creative Endeavors
2. Hands on - Fixing, Maintaining and Building Things
3. Passionate Causes - Environmental, Social, Community, World and Health
4. Politics - Running for Office, Being on Boards and Working on Campaigns
5. Entrepreneurial - Starting Your Own Business or Aligning with Others to Create One
6. Education - Teaching and Mentoring - Children and Adults
7. Consultants - Business and Other Organizations

What I also know is that each of us has a style of interacting.  According to one personality instrament, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator these styles are:  

1. Chart the Course
2. Get Things Going
3. In Charge
4. Behind the Scenes

Depending on which one you are, you may take the bull by the horns and chart the course - these are the big picture folks, or you  find something that inspires you and get it going for yourself and others - these are the inspiring and encouraging folks, or you might be in charge once it is going - these are the get things done through others or on their own folks, or you work quietly behind the scenes - these are the worker bees and keep the planes running on time folks.  Either way, there is a place for each of us in the six areas I have mentioned.

In addition to these areas you may continue to work in your chosen profession - as I have mentioned before some people continue to work at their profession until the end, but most of these are people who either own the company themselves such as doctors, lawyers and other professionals, or are  independent agents such as actors, politicians and those in sports.

Today is the Day to Start Planning For The Possibility Years 

With this extra time, money and energy we need to listen for the call of our soul's and take some action.  But what action is that?  Look at the seven areas of work I have mentioned and the four interaction syles and see if something jumps out at your.  Remember, the soul speaks in a soft voice and leads you in a direction more than it will give you a concrete answer right away.  If you are still in your first act and I define that as being at the beginning or at the height of it but not in a place to actually start living out your possibility years, then it's time to start planning for it.  In stead of focusing on retirement planning where it's all about fun and play, how about thinking about how you could set up your life to do some kind of meaningful work - that is, your soul's call and one with a certain amount of pleasure and fun, as well. I want to be clear here too, a soul call is about some kind of work - work that contributes, work that challenges you, work that makes a difference in some way to the greater good.  Calling for me is about vocation and not simply the little calls that come our way everyday.  This work of course, does  not have to be paid work or work that is some kind of job designed by someone else - but it could be - just because you are called to it does not mean you do it for free - you might and you might not, the key is that your soul calls you to it and that it makes a difference.  If you are already retired or about to be and wondering what's next I suggest spending some time listening for your soul's call and figuring out some ways to act on it.

Work and Play in Balance Equal the Possibility Years 

There is an old saying, that says, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy/"  A new one I have come up with is, "All play and no work makes Jack a dumb boy"  The brain needs challenges or it will recede into the background - the old "use it or lose it" idea is more true here than in any other aspect of life.  Using your brain will activate your working memory so that when you are doing something that challenges you and you are not simply on autopilot, this will keep your mind sharp.  What this means is it needs to be some kind of work.  Work is what keeps you sharp and on top of things, playing and being on vacation does not do that. But we also need play as well, for me the best idea is a 50-50 split - work fifty percent of the time and do pleasurable activities the other fifty.  

Change Your Mindset to the Possibility years

In many, many ways it's all about mindset and how you think of yourself and what you say.  The minute you say out loud to yourself or someone else, that you are retired, your mind and the people who hear you say this will automatically put you in a category and that category is you no longer count. Saying you are retired means to you and everyone else that you are done and are now sitting on the sidelines of life. I'm sorry to say it this way, but it is simply the truth. BB King was on a talk show recently and the interviewer asked him about retirement and he said, "What ?  I don't know what that word means."   They both laughed and that was the message - if want to count and still be doing your thing at close to 90,like BB King, well, then you better get that word out of your conscious mind and put a new one in.  I call it the possibility years and I am in the midst of my own right now and having a ball.  What about you?  Are you planning for your possibility years or planning to be put yourself out to pasture?  Something to think about.

Blessings,  Lorraine