Posted on 12/24/2024 6:09:36 AM PST by MtnClimber
Years ago, while studying for my master’s degree in human behavior, I became deeply intrigued by the concept of personal goal setting and how important it is for people to have goals simply in order to stay healthy. What I learned changed my life.
Human beings are, by nature, goal seekers. We are the only living creatures who can look into the future and project images of ourselves. Within the context of every other living creature, even the simple act of scheduling a lunch meeting for next week or planning a family get-together is an amazingly complex and miraculous task.
But our teleological nature goes far beyond that. Just ask the doctor who “wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember.” Or anyone else whose childhood dream to pursue a specific career came true. What these examples show is that if you create visions of yourself cast into the future, you will naturally be drawn toward those visions, usually until they become true.
This is one of the reasons why one of the most important steps in goal setting is to create positive, present-tense affirmations of yourself having achieved each of your goals. Then, repeat these affirmations over and over until the goals become reality. The more vividly you can have your subconscious mind visualize you in your desired goal state, the more likely you will be to achieve that state (accomplish your goal) sooner rather than later.
Interestingly enough, not having clear goals can create problems for people when they retire. Far too often, when people stop working, they think that they’ve achieved their life’s purpose, so there’s “nothing left to do.” Thus, they are left basically directionless and without a sense of purpose for this chapter in their life.
The data tells us that individuals who lack purpose and direction tend to have worse health outcomes and die sooner than those who have a sense of purpose. Those without goals tend to wander aimlessly for a time and have less fulfilling life spans than people who continue to set goals for themselves.
It’s important to know that the goals we are talking about here are not simply work-related. They could be family-related, travel-related, recreational, spiritual, or even learning-related. The important thing is to have exciting milestones to look forward to in the future. For many people, this is their “bucket list.”
Setting goals and defining purpose isn’t hard work. But for some reason, it’s one of those activities that is difficult to get started with if you haven’t already made a habit of goal setting. However, once you set goals, the satisfaction is both immediate and long-term.
Early on during our 55-year marriage, my wife and I made goal setting an important part of our relationship. It has not only made our lives and relationship more fulfilling, but it has also led to us accomplishing much more with our lives than we would have otherwise. It has made our transition into retirement much smoother and more fulfilling. Defining goals and purpose can do the same for you.
It’s never too late to start. The most important thing is to outline an annual process and stick to it. We start each year by discussing possible goals for the next year during the week following Christmas, leading up to New Year’s. Instead of writing New Year’s resolutions, we write our list of goals for the upcoming year (and sometimes beyond). We set goals for our relationship, family, finances, home improvement, travel, learning, health, service to others, and just about anything else you can think of – even our spirituality.
Then, we print out the list of goals and post them where we will see it almost every day.
On or around the Fourth of July, we review them to assess our progress, make changes, and update whatever is necessary. At year’s end, that goal list becomes the starting point for next year’s goals when we restart the process the week after Christmas.
Research has repeatedly shown that goal setting may be even more important in retirement than earlier in life. If you don’t already do something to create and maintain a clear sense of purpose for this chapter in your life, now is the time to start. The dividends will be plentiful.
I never retired.
Get involved with the local Republican Party. Vote out the country clubber RINOs. Be an election observer. Lots of things to do there, and we’ve all ignored it too much for years. Good self-governance requires sustained involvement by many.
:-)
I have this list for when I retire:
Exercise every day
Learn to draw expertly
Learn another language
Take a writing course
Learn gardening
Master a 3D application
Write Letters
Be a driver for veterans
Write ten songs
Learn to play violin
Learn to play piano
Learn how to use a firearm competently
Learn Celestial Navigation
Bake bread expertly
Render computer training and troubleshooting to those in need of it
Learn how to make a shirt
Throw a costume party
Serve as a historic docent or guide
Learn to play the drums
Sing with other people
Learn how to make castings
Carve wooden birds
Learn woodblock printing
Get a Blue Jay to eat from my hand
Obtain a non-IT job and perform it competently
Build a homemade mobile solar power unit
Keep bees
Make good pasta sauce
Write a series of short stories
Build a Remote Control plane
I get what you mean. I didn’t include spirituality related items in my retirement bucket list because I am working on those today!
My goal is to find and develop the finest tomato with the best disease resistance for my area.
That is a worthy goal!
Same here. I retired 6/30/23. Still pretty new at this. But what’s not to love? The wife and I go to the gym every Tue-Thur, sometimes on the weekend. When weather permits, I play golf once or twice a week. We go and do as we please. I read books. Surf the net. Play incredible video games. Have occasional lunches with friends.
Heading to Florida on Friday to see the grands, and then on a 7 night cruise. Gee… I so miss all the monthly reports, strategy planning sessions, missed production targets, frustrated customers, lazy co-workers….etc. so much. LOL !!!
I've also thought about getting my church to try solar. I doubt it'd be feasible to make 80% of the church's power consumption come from solar like my house is. The church's power consumption is too bursty (need tons of power during Sundays, especially during the summer to run the AC, and to have enough solar for that would mean too much solar the rest of the time). But I wouldn't be surprised if 30% homemade power is about as much as we could invest in to get a good ROI without running into the law of diminishing returns. That might give the church a little cushion if the God hating left uses their energy policies to turn the heat onto churches and try to make us bow to their hedonism. And if it works, I might help other churches do the same. (Really optimizing it requires a lot of analysis of the data from the solar inverter on various times of day, based on what the weather was at that time of day, etc. I did that kind of analysis with my small solar system so I'd know how much to add onto it when I upgraded it. I told my pastor if it worked I might wind up helping other churches do the same.)
My life has been WONDERFUL! since retiring!
“I knew what I was going to do in retirement when I was 16 years old.”
Care to share what it is?
Concur. I reflected on the fact that since I was 5 years old my life was completely structured and all my time was regimented around the structure of school and work. Even moments of free time, such as a vacation, were squeezed into a forced time frame. So for multiple decades I have lived serving that structure.
Now that those days are behind me the liberty I have seems almost surreal. I’ve been retired for about four years and I still wake up daily pinching myself about how blessed I am. My spouse suggested I get some part-time gig. There is no way I will ever go back to even a minimal structure. The thought of getting locked into someone else’s schedule again is unnerving.
I am extremely happy to do my hobbies, work out 3 to 4 times a week, help my wife’s grow herbusiness, and give my life away to volunteer pursuits and my kids. I sound like an old man I guess, but my prayer is to live long enough to see at least one grandchild from each of my kids. Then I’ll die a happy, fulfilled man.
Retirement is supposed to be for enjoyment. Not working toward goals everyday. I’m exhausted just reading his article.
My goal for today is to get everything packed in the truck and get to our rural compound by dark so we can eat tacos and drink wine. 😉
I’m retired. My goal is to manage my finances well so I never have to say, “welcome to WalMart.”
“I so miss all the monthly reports, strategy planning sessions, missed production targets, frustrated customers, lazy co-workers”
Did we work at the same place? 😁
Remember, WE EARNED IT.
Also, some call me Tim as well.....well, everybody does.
Enjoy the cruise. 👍
My retirement goal is to swim in the Ocean everyday. I’m practicing for retirement while still employed.
“My spouse suggested I get some part-time gig.”
I explain that I have a full-time job—speaking truth to power online—in a variety of different forums.
It is a total myth that one person cannot make a difference.
The butterfly effect is real.
One comment or suggestion you make may go around the world a hundred times before it reaches someone who agrees and has the power to do something about it.
I’m a retired (2009) university prof and have discovered I’m very good at it! I love writing and continue to write books and articles, mostly about my hobby (amateur radio). My one suggest for those who are new to retirement: keep your work-life early-morning routine. For me, that’s a shower and shave before breakfast. Simple idea, but I find that I’m more active when I do that. Otherwise, I tend to stay in the house and feel kinda lazy all day. Try to get outside each day, meet friends for lunch, take an adult education class, try something new that sounds interesting. I’ve discovered I really enjoy cooking...who knew?
Helping fill the void and countering the darkness.
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