In the years after World War II America saw a massive increase in births in such magnitude that even as late as 2005 these people represent about 29 percent of the population. This meant that there were approximately 76 million people between 41 and 59 years old in the U.S..
The people who make up this generation were almost instantly known as the Baby Boomer Generation.
Today these people are nearing or have entered retirement age. The issue is that they either don’t want to retire or see their retirement as something more than a life of unencumbered leisure. Now, instead of being known as the Baby Boom Generation, these people are now becoming known as the Encore Generation.
These people are:
• Still healthy and active – physically, socially, and sexually
• Eager to bring years of knowledge and experience to new endeavor or lifestyle
• Willing to work in opportunities they see as chances to give back to society
The down side is that they may want to enjoy all that is available to them… they just don’t know how to go about realizing those goals…
Many people find that living a fulfilled life in retirement is frequently very difficult. “Why is that?” you may ask – well, the answer really is quite simple: for all of their working years, they were very heavily invested in their careers, their spouse’s and children’s lives.
Not everyone who gets to their fifties or sixties and knows exactly what it is that they want to do with the rest of their life. How many people do you know that are bored out of their minds within months of retiring because either they never REALLY planned for it, or they had invested so much of their life into their career that they don’t have any other interests…?
Sad isn’t it – someone gets to the time in their life where they have the time, are still healthy enough, and can afford to do whatever they want – they just don’t have any idea of WHAT they would like to do…?
Does this sound familiar? You might have been saving for retirement, but you never took time to plan exactly WHAT you were going to do in retirement.
So here you are: the kids have grown up and moved out to live their lives, you may (and I sincerely hope that this is not the case) be single again, and you have all this time on your hands with nothing to do with it.
You are still healthy and active, you know that there is a great big world out there but you just don’t know what you want to.
Trust me, I hear this quite often.
“I put in 30 years in that plant… What do I want to do? I dunno… never really thought about it.”
“I spent 30 years at XYZ working my way to be Regional Manager and didn’t consider anything else.”
“I worked 25 years to be the very best cop I could be… now what?”
“My husband and I put in 25 years working to build this business up from scratch… it’s all we had and now… I’m still, well, you know – I’m not too old to enjoy life, but it’s been 30 years since I was on a date.”
I could go on and on of the stories I have heard of people our age (yes, I am a Baby Boomer too) lamenting the fact that they are sometimes without a real vision for their lives. Listening to these people, people who probably have never experienced the feeling of being adrift in their lives – I help them understand what their purpose in life is.
Together we work to find a vision for them – sometimes it is a re-invention of them, other times it can take the form of simply going back and re-invigorating something from their past.
On the other side of the coin they may have lives so cluttered that they have become so overwhelmed and lost their bearings because of all the stressors and entanglements in their lives. Working to set realistic goals and agendas, I help them prioritize their lives.
If you are a member of the Baby Boomer/Encore Generation and would like to discuss how you would like to live the live you want and desire (even if you don’t know just what that life looks like), write me and let’s get started on your Encore Life!
