Do You Remember....

The other day I was out running errands, and I got stuck behind a school bus that was picking up children for school. The bus would stop at every corner and the kids would pile in. It got me thinking about my own kids at that age and what my life was like when my kids were in school. How much time I spent:

• Getting them to do homework.
• Getting them to their various after school activities.
• Getting them to clean their rooms.
• Getting them to just go to bed!

I vividly remember the first night my daughter told me she didn't need me to read to her before she went to sleep. Part of me was very excited to have that extra 30 minutes in my day to get stuff done, but part of me was sad that she was growing up.

Then came the teen years and now they are adultish. Time flies so quickly.

Each stage of my life seems to come with a never-ending list of tasks that need to be done just to get everyone successfully to the end of the day.

But my life has changed so much in the past 30 years.

Some of those changes were good:

• Getting married
• Buying a house
• Having my children

Some of those changes were devastating:

• Losing my job
• Losing my husband
• Losing my mother

Some of those changes were what I was able to make of them:

• Moving to Minnesota
• Finding a new job
• Becoming an entrepreneur

Each of these changes required me to rethink what I am doing and how I am doing it. (We introverts tend to be good at self-reflection.)

This is one of those life lessons that I feel like we need to keep learning over and over again, life changes.

Some of the changes are good, some bad but most are what we make of them.

Retirement is one of the biggest changes in our lives - in fact it is listed in the top 10 most stressful life events because there is so much change.

Preparing for those changes before they happen can go a long way to ease the transition.

Here are 8 things to think about as you begin to plan your retirement:

1. Should my spouse and I retire at the same time?
2. What do I need to do to maintain my health?
3. Should I downsize? Move?
4. How do I find new friends?
5. How do I create/ maintain healthy boundaries?
6. What passions do I want to pursue?
7. How do I want to spend my time?
8. Do I want to volunteer? If so, where?

Each of these questions may take some time and consideration to answer. Remember there are no wrong answers here. This is YOUR retirement, and you need to create what works best for you.

Since we were just talking about building your best retirement, I thought it would be a good place to talk about the #1 key to happiness:

The strength and quality of your relationships.

I know there is a cultural bias that says that introverts struggle with building social networks and sometimes that is true.

I think it is important to understand that extroverts can struggle too. Especially after retirement when many of our social connections fade away.

To help you with that I have created a booklet that outlines a simple 3 step process for building, rebuilding or expanding your relationships.

Click the button below to purchase your copy for only $9.99

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