Retirement As You Want It

Is It a Value for You to Create Ecosytems to Sustain Life on This Planet?

Have you considered what legacy you'd like to leave the world and future generations? World renowned ecological activist, Dr.Vandana Shiva, founded a movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living things. Her message is compelling: "How much life can we protect?" rather than how many species can we kill by pollution and global warming. She suggests we can make a choice: to nourish life or create more for the wealthy. Nourishing life forms doesn't necessarily make indivuals rich in economic terms. But, it makes them rich in biodiversity.

Dr. Shiva's goal is to create sustainable food systems so that all people on the globe can survive and thrive. Presently, 5 agribusinesses control the food of the world. Any one of us can become a detoxifying force to save the planet. "We are one earth," she says, "with inter-connections among all living things."

Is it a value for you to bring forth a world where we share resources and collaborate to do so? If you believe so, then you can investigate Dr Shiva's website to incorporate this urgent global need into your encore career.

Retired Executives Connect With Companies Seeking Consultants

In the next 5 years 3 million executives will leave their positions. Companies will experience a distressing lack of talent at the upper levels. Some companies are well aware of this and planning for the problem by hiring consultants for a wide variety of tasks. They do so to bring in expertise that is not available in their organization, to solve specific problems or lead a project, to bring new ideas, to train existing staff.

Hiring part-time consultants is often more cost-effective to the company because they don't have the overhead and don't have to make a long-term commitment to a full time employee. With consultants, companies can set the optimal length of employment for the project they have in mind, place talent in just the place where it's needed, and limit expenditures.

Retired executives are keen to find challenging work that will continue to engage them for years after they leave their mid-years' careers. According to a report from the Executive Brain Trust, "fewer than 1/3 expect to engage in leisure activities only during retirement."  Seventy percent expect to seek consulting positions.

52% of companies use consultants and more than 2/3 of that group use independent consultants, most often found through personal contacts or networking. Types of expertise in demand, the report found, are: IT, market research, audits, e-commerce implementation, government regulations, selection of senior management and many other business specialties.

Of those companies surveyed, more than half hired retired executives. And more than 2/3 thirds hire independent consultants, not consulting firms.

If you are a retired or almost retired executive who would like to continue to contribute your expertise and land lucrative consulting positions, these are available and attractive. Retired execs who were surveyed indicate that the rewards of being productive and getting a sense of accomplishment are the greatest benefits.

ExecBrainTrust.com is a new online social network for retired executives to share experiences about finding interesting consulting in their field of expertise. You can join, list your preferences, and pay a small percentage when you do get a position through the site.

I have no personal financial stake in this site, but thought it was an interesting service. There may be other similar ones.

Re-Tooling Mature Workers

More than a quarter of the American workforce is over age 50 and more intend to continue working past traditional retirement age. But many of these will have to retool, especially if they've been laid off or want to return to work after flirting with retirement.

Community colleges, organizations and community groups are now in the business of helping people to design and implement their retooling.

Programs are proliferating that assist the 50+ to land a job (often) in a new field. Through resume writing workshops, people learn that a chronological resume is out and functionality is in. Many programs help people beef up computer skills.

Atlantic Philanthropies gave a $3.2 million grant to 15 colleges participating in the Plus 50 Initiative.The Life Planning Network is a New England based organization of life planning professionals whose goal it is to assist the over-50 generation to discover what they want to do next and to access the services they need. The Transition Network is an organization that helps women revamp careers or start new ones. See "More Second Acts in American Lives" in the New York Times to hear more.

Do You Work for "Daily Meaning," Not Just "Daily Bread?"

96 year old writer Studs Terkel, died a few months ago. He famously stated in his book, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, that people go to work every bit as much for "daily meaning" as for "daily bread."

Marc Freedman, author of Encore...Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life,  poses the question: How do we help people to contribute their skills to making a better world for the next generation? Surely many more people believe they now have to work to replenish their depleted savings. But, how, Freedman asks, can we redefine work as not merely a paycheck, but an activity that gives us deep meaning?

A big piece of this equation is to convince employers, especially non-profits, that people over age 50 have plenty of energy, health, and skills to contribute, rather than fearing they'll train and then lose their employee to the golf course. But, HR departments are beginning to get savvy about the expected brain drain of the top echelons of their companies and non-profits. More of us have to speak out about the need in public forums... both the imminent need of employers and the desire of potential employees.

What experiences do you have in convincing employers to hire you if you're over age 50? Comment on this post or write to me at Karma@LifeSpringCoaching.com

Volunteer All Over the World... Right From Home

Do you want to feel connected to the world but prefer to work from home? Volunteering from your living room presents all kinds of possibililties you might never have considered. See "How to Make a World of Difference -- Without Leaving Home."

Whether you're still employed, working part-time, or retired, you might want to enrich your life by being a virtual volunteer. With Internet access, you can join any number of organizations to express yourself in a different way from what you did when you were employed.

VolunteerMatch.com offers a database of 50,000 remote jobs all over the world. If you speak a foreign language and would like to hone your communications skills, you can find a job that you can do without the hassles and expense of traveling to a foreign country. If you have a skill you'd like to share, there is a volunteer opportunity for you. You can establish your own hours when editing or translating documents, designing graphics, or doing research nearer home or abroad, never leaving your house.

For those less computer inclined, how about beintg a foster caretaker for ailing pets or vacationing pet owners? Or make daily phone calls to elderly who live alone anywhere in the country or world? Or knit blankets for homeless shelters?

Needing or wanting to stay close to home no longer need be a deterrant to volunteering and staying active in the global community.

Is "UnRetirement" Coaching for You?

Are you approaching traditional retirement age and know you want more flexibility, but don't want to just live a life of leisure 24/7? Is your retirement wallet slimmer than you expected and you realize you need to earn some more money to supplement your assets?

"Unretirement coaching" might be the vehicle that will get you where you want to go. Sun Life publishes an unretirement index, which studies the attitudes of baby boomers toward coming retirement. Of the 48% that state they will continue working past age 67, 83% of them cite "staying mentally engaged" as the motivator, not the need to earn money.

While the term "retirement" might be a thing of the past for many of us, retirement still looms as an undefined period of 20-30 years where we are active, energetic, and eager to pursue interests we've put aside for decades. But, how can we discover what we want to do to keep ourselves mentally, emotionally, and physically fit for this next phase of life?

Meg Newhouse, co-founder of the Life Planning Network, an organization of professionals who provide a range of services to the over-50 group states that coaches help people to "reinvent their lives, creating second careers with more flexible schedules that allow for volunteer commitments and family." (for image above, © Nikolay Mamluke| Dreamstime.com)

If working 1-1 with a coach isn't your preference, you might choose a retirement planning workshop where you can dialog with like-minded people. Many resorts, community colleges, and wellness retreats now offer such programs, where qualified coach leaders take you on a journey of discovery of things that turned you on from many years ago and now to lparlay these passions into an "unretirement" career or volunteer activity.

If you are at a loss, write to me at Karma@LifeSpringCoaching.com for a free initial phone session.

Boomers Share Post-Career Goal of Changing Society

Are you one of the 50% of people aged 50-70 who've indicated on suveys that you want to have a positive impact on the world after you leave your mid-years career? Bill Gates and Bill Clinton are two stars who've become role models for doing just that.

The Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative has launched a small program, hoping to be a model for other universities to teach accomplished people to become social entrepreneurs and to lead NGOs.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor at the Harvard Business school said in Starting Over, With a Second Career Goal of Changing Society, "This is about deploying a leadership force to have an impact on major social problems."

Although needs are even more pressing now, funds for capitalizing these initieatives are more scarce. but, the trend toward seasoned high level people who are passionate about finding their encore careers marches ahead.

Do you have a dream of impacting major issues in the world before you retire to leisure pursuits? Are you stirred to do something but haven't yet found your passion?

Comment here with your thoughts and lets get a dialogue going.