The Retirement Bubble

Let me take a few minutes to talk about a problem too many people face when they first start their Life Sabbatical, then an approach to dealing with it.

We have all worked for decades. We are used to jumping in and getting things done in areas as familiar to us as eating breakfast. Now we want to try and find something new, something we think we might really like doing. We want to investigate it, learn as much as we can, and decide if it is worth further time and effort. So many people I talk to start out with this in mind, then run into a wall of their own creation, taking all the fun out of the process and ending up more depressed than when they began!

The first error we often make is taking ourselves too seriously right from the start. We want to know it all as quickly as possible. We begin judging its potential for income-earning from Day One. For some strange reason, we feel we should learn how to perform it well in weeks or a few months, despite decades of past life learning that this is not how life works. Time becomes our enemy and if we cannot learn something new in a short time, we decide it will take too long.

We are our own worst judges. I cannot tell you how unreal it is to sit and here someone tell me that they got interested in something new, tried it out once and decided (judged) it as useless for them to continue. Yeah, I know, you think I am exaggerating for effect. One time and they give up? Oh yes, it definitely happens more often than you think. Let me give you one example, quite an unusual one, I think you will agree.

Jack had been a hurdler in college twenty years ago. Now he was in his 40’s and looking for new possibilities. There was quite a growing community of adult athletes growing in our metro area and there were possibilities there for a new business. He decided the best way to get into that crowd was to try hurdling again. He asked me if I thought he could put on hurdling shoes and actually get over any hurdles after all these years. I said, sure, he could do it, but he would need to find a place to practice and put time and effort into it. If he did, there were Masters track meets where adult men and women competed as seriously as at any college. There was a whole variety of networking opportunities in his potential market, and there was no better way to be introduced than on the track itself. He looked pretty excited and told me he would give it a try.

I saw Jack a month or so later, having forgotten our earlier conversation. While we were talking, he said, Bob, do you remember when I talked about hurdling? I said, sure, I remember. Well it seems he had gone out the day after we had spoken and bought a brand new pair of hurdling shoes. He went to a local high school whose facilities were open to the adult public after school hours. There were ten hurdles up on the track. Jack warmed up and gave it a run. He told me that he cleared the first six without difficulty, just grazed the next two, and tipped the last two over.

I was so impressed! Wow, twenty years later and he does that well on his first try? Fantastic! But before I could open my mouth, he added, “I stood there and looked back over the hurdles and I told myself, who am I kidding? There’s no way I can be a hurdler again. So I threw out the shoes.” He threw out any idea of sports as a source for a new business along with them. End of story.

All these years later, I am still a little shocked at how quickly Jack could judge himself and convict himself as a failure so quickly. Jack was a very intelligent guy who had held very challenging executive positions, but when it came to himself, he just lost it. Jack is not alone.

Bill had a different problem, setting income goals too high, too fast. Bill was a good amateur furniture refinisher, having done it for himself several times. He was in his 50’s. Could he possibly make money doing this as a living? Of course, I told him he could. Good refinishers are not all that common and there is definitely plenty of business for a good one, but it would take more training and practice before he could expect to open a business.

I spoke with Bill a couple months later and the subject came up casually. I asked him what he had decided. He told me he had “checked it out” and decided that the income he might get after one year’s further training would not equal what he was earning now, at the top of his game in a field he had worked in for more than three decades. As a result, it was not worth the time and effort.

What? Like Jack, it was hard to respond to something so silly. What did he mean “checked it out”? How? And what did that have to do with him anyhow. He spends a little time reading some websites on refinishing and comes up with this, the decision not even to try? And worse yet, he is looking for a new career that will pay him in one year an income equal to what he was earning after 30+ years of hands-on experience? It is because of folks like Jack that I recommend the 30% Solution for people starting a Life Sabbatical or otherwise on a search for a new career who can support themselves as retirees now, but want to earn some income in the future. The percentage is unimportant, the point is to make your goal both modest and realistic when starting something new.

After working with people as long as I have, I now find it easier to spot this sort of thing early on and address it, but some people still fool me! I will forever be amazed at how harshly people treat themselves, and then convince themselves that they are being “realistic”. Hah!

So what to do about this? I tell folks who are at a stage in life, either voluntarily or involuntarily and of any age, when they can support themselves, but feel they will need income in the future to not to look for a new career. At least, not yet. No, begin by thinking of things you think you would really like to do and “get a feel for them”. Read more about them. Attend a lecture, presentation or event of some kind where you can learn more. Talk to someone who does it for a living. Just get out and get a feel for what it involves. Stay at that stage for awhile. If it really begins to look interesting, you can step it up and look for opportunities to learn more. If it doesn’t look interesting after awhile, get a feel for something else that interests you. Stop being so bloody serious about it in the beginning! Just open your mind to it, get a little taste of it, and let yourself judge it (and you) slowly. So six months later, you decide it is not for you? Fine, you have had a great experience, learned more about your real interests, and maybe come across something more interesting. Take that attitude and you will never be a “failure”. You will always come out of it with more than you had when you went into it.

Don’t step up to a new activity, grab it in both arms, and squeeze it to death! Just reach out and get a feel for it. You can embrace it later, if it feels right.
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