Last week, I gave you a behind the scenes look at how I arrived at the title and subtitle of my book, Retirement Stepping Stones: Find Meaning, Live with Purpose, and Leave a Legacy. I thought it’d be fun to dive a bit deeper into each of the 3 themes of my book. This week, let’s chat a bit more about “Finding Meaning” and why I chose that to be the first part of the subtitle.
The foundation of my book, Retirement Stepping Stones, sounds simple: Finding meaning in your life. Unfortunately, for many of us, that concept isn’t as straightforward as it should be!
The eternal question of “why am I here?” bubbles up to the surface at different times in our lives. However, in daily living, it’s easy to set such a deep question aside and continue to go through the motions. There are still kids to take to soccer practice, tasks at work to accomplish, and an endless list of “to do’s” that pull us from digging deeper.
In the hustle of everyday life, we can sometimes forget that our lives are full of deeper meaning. Then, when we retire, we’re surprised that we feel aimless and adrift.
In my book, I focus on how you can find meaning in your life before or even during retirement. I believe that the best way to do this is to take intentional time to clarify your values.
When your career provides you with a sense of meaning and accomplishment, it’s critical to dig deeper to determine why this is. Your answer won’t be the same as your spouse, or your coworkers. That’s because we each find meaning in our lives for different reasons that are largely dependent on our unique set of values.
Finding meaning in your life doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or complicated. Look around you – what brings you joy? When do you feel the most like yourself? What are you passionate about?
Clarifying your own personal values, and the values you share with your spouse or partner, can help you to gain a deeper understanding of your own personal “why”. Once you have a clear idea of what’s important to you, it’s much easier to build a life you love both now and throughout retirement.
So, there you go! A bit of a deeper dive on the first portion of my subtitle. Stay tuned next week as we explore “Live with Purpose”. Thanks for reading!
