Baby Boomer’s Retirement Plans Must Go Beyond Setting Goals

The idea of developing a comprehensive retirement plan has caught the attention of baby boomers. Whether you followed the traditional retirement path or took early retirement you have probably already given some thought to how you can afford this new phase of life and what your new lifestyle will be. Until very recently, only the financial piece of this plan had been addressed but now the importance of retirement lifestyle planning has become accepted as well. However, in making these new lifestyle plans, there is often one essential piece that is left out. Having dreams and making them goals is one thing, but you must also have a way to turn them into realities.

In planning what your new lifestyle will be, there are many considerations. Where will you live? Do you want to continue working part time and if so, doing what? What new or old interests do you wish to pursue? How will you stay mentally and physically fit? The questions seem endless. You may already be disappointed with your retirement and wonder if you thought enough about these questions. Perhaps the issue is not how much thought you gave to the questions but what goals did you set for yourself and what did you do to follow through with them? Without a definite plan of action to keep moving toward your goals you jeopardize your chances for a happy retirement. People are accustomed to setting goals as evidenced by all the annual New Year’s resolutions but most of those resolutions, call them goals if you wish, will never be achieved due to lack of a solid plan to see them through.

There can be no movement forward in your life without knowing where you want to go. This is where the goal setting, particularly SMART goals is the key. For those not familiar with the term, it refers to Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time restricted goals. “I will learn to play guitar” is not a goal that will get you too far. It is a general idea of what you want to do. “I will learn to play 3 chords on the guitar by next Sunday” is a SMART goal because it contains all of the five required elements.

Setting goals is the easy part. The challenge for most people is following through on these goals. According to Goldsmith and Lyons in “Coaching for Leadership, Volume II,” (Wiley 2005) there are a number of reasons why people give up on their goals:

• They do not buy into their goals, so there is no feeling of ownership. For example, if someone else sets goals for you, those goals are not your own and you cannot act on them from an internal point of reference.
• They underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a goal so they give up before achieving it.
• They set goals that are too difficult to achieve resulting in a sense of frustration.
• They allow themselves to get distracted too easily.
• They become disappointed when reaching a goal does not result in the desired happiness or translate into other goals.
• They find that maintaining the changed person they become is difficult because the safety and familiarity of the old can be a stronger pull than dealing with the new. Coming out of one’s comfort zone creates stress that some people avoid by going backwards.

To be sure that one or more of these things does not prevent you from reaching the goals that will make you happy, you need to follow up those goals by taking these four steps.

• Double check to see that your goals are truly SMART goals. Give special attention to how realistic your goals are and the time frame you give yourself.

• Give serious and honest thought to what roadblocks may get in the way of attaining your goals. Review the list above as a starting point.

• Decide how you will break through these barriers if and when they show up. Leave room for flexibility in your goals and how you react to setbacks.

• Learn when to say “enough is enough.” For example, wanting to break par on your favorite golf course is one thing. Achieving that goal and then setting a goal of shooting 5 under par, then 10 under par, etc. can become an obsession that will never leave you satisfied and robs you of the opportunity to explore other avenues of your life.

By using SMART goals and the follow up plan of action outlined here you will have a much greater chance of seeing your dreams turn into exciting realities for your retirement years.

Tony Lacertosa, M.A. is a retired teacher and Certified Life Coach with advanced training in health and wellness coaching. He specializes in helping young retirees become happier and more fulfilled in their retirement through both individual and group coaching programs. By using a unique process, Tony helps his clients re-think their idea of retirement and supports them as they learn how to live the new, exciting, lifestyle they’ve created for themselves. To download a free report on how to deal with the most common causes of unhappy retirement just visit http://unretirementcoach.com

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