The Retired Renegade

Life Mapping: A Vision of Success

Success is much more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for a successful retirement is about identifying all the aspects of your life. Similar to preparing for a trip, you need to define the following details: Who are you (origin), where your going (destination), how your going to get there (vehicle), your knowledge and experience (backpack), your objectives, goals (landmarks, and route).

Origin:  Who you are

Like a map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are at this moment. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi,my name is Chris and I am a 55-year old, retired manager.” It doesn’t tell you who Chris is; it only tells you about her present situation. To gain insights about yourself, you must look closely at you believe in, your values, and principles as well as your economical, professional, cultural, and civil position. Furthermore, you can also meditate on your experiences to give you discernment on your good and bad  traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon self-examination, Chris realized that he was extremely motivated, unselfish, service-oriented, but he was also impatient. His disposition was in educational activity. Furthermore, he thought that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were harmful to human dignity.

Destination: Where are you going, your vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” That’s your vision. Now it’s crucial that you know yourself to have a clear idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to modify whether they be attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you barely know yourself, then your vision and objectives for the future would also be blurred. Your goal should embrace all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Pursuing Chris’s story, after he defined his beliefs, values, and principles in life, he found that he needed to have a life dedicated in helping his fellow men.

Vehicle: How will you get there, Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you will reach your destination. It’s similar to your mission or calling in life. To a large extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Based on Chris’s self appraisal, he decided that he was suited to become a teacher and that he wanted to become one. His chosen career in retirement was to teach. Describing his new ambition fully: it was to live his new life dedicated to helping people in his same situation (retired)  as a teacher.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Clothing, drinks, medicines, and other travelling essentials are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you indisputable knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These influence your competence and assist you in achieving your vision. Granted, there is a motive for you to measure what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to take in along the way. This double appraisal will give you ideas on your landmarks or measures of success. Chris recognized that he needed to add professional knowledge and skills in teaching so that he could become a teacher. He knew that he was a bit quick-tempered, impatient with people so he realized that this was something he needed to change.

Landmarks and Route: Objectives

Landmarks confirm if you’re on the right course while the route sets the travel time. So, in projecting your life, you also need to have landmarks and a itinerary. These landmarks qualify your success. These measures need to be specific, measurable, possible, realistic, and have an end so you can’t set two major objectives such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the least number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years. Going back to Chris for instance, he discovered the following landmarks in his life map: collecting the elements that will be part of  the program he would teach in his private course by the  the age of 56; completing the preparation of his course by the age of 57; his marketing program by the age of 58 ; Retiring at the age of 59; and teaching his course “how to start a business online”.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But frequently our plans are changed along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we must expect them and adjust accordingly.