Retirement Pro Tip: Measure your success without numbers

Working people tend to gauge their success by the numbers. Pete was one of those people.

Pete measured his success by the number of years he’d been in business, accounts served, people employed, vacations earned and awards collected. He looked at the figure on his paycheck and compared amounts from early in his career (Friday nights at McDonalds) to where they are now. (Ruth’s Chris!)

But, what would Pete do when the paychecks stopped coming and there was no dollar amount reflecting his worth? What would happen when there were no years in business, vacation weeks or clients to be counted? What would be the measure of his success then?

For Pete – and other Type-A types (you know who you are) –  that’s the existential crisis of retirement. Pete worried, not so much about how he would spend his time (his wife had plenty of ideas) but about how he would measure his success once his working days were over.

His anxiety was so great, Pete was reluctant to retire. In fact, he had moved his retirement date up – twice!! – much to his wife’s dismay. Obviously, in order for him to feel enthusiastic about retirement, Pete’s paradigm had to change.

That’s where Fit-To-Retire came in.

As Pete took the Fit-To-Retire retirement readiness assessment and moved through the program with his coach, he discovered that retirement has plenty of its own pay-offs. Pete learned that success in retirement can be measured in meaningful qualitative ways:

• By the smiles Pete now brings to the faces of young people he mentors
• By the sore muscles he earned on his first long-distance bike race
• By the hugs from his wife and grandchildren after a long day at the zoo
• By knowing what he accomplished in his career is enough to cover whatever comes

It took Pete a while to get there, but it didn’t take long to realize that retirement success – unlike in business – is more about intangible, unquantifiable results. But, like in business, retirement success requires a comprehensive plan and no two plans will look alike.

So, that’s the Pro Tip of the Day, compliments of Pete: Retirement success is measured differently than business success. To have a truly fulfilling retirement, you have to celebrate the intangibles.

Start planning for your success today. Take our complimentary readiness assessment and see how prepared and enthusiastic you are in the five key areas of retirement success.