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You Can’t Disrupt Aging Without a Little Planning – #DisruptAging

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Disrupt means to cause something to be unable to continue in the normal way. In business, it’s when a new product addresses a market that couldn’t be served. Some examples of disruption include the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and 3D printing.

Unfortunately, over the years, organizations have latched on to the word “disrupt” and attached it to every new product on the market, even if it isn’t disruptive.

I can’t say that I’m trying to disrupt retirement with this blog, but I do hope to share resources that will make the transition for many of us a little better. One person who is trying to genuinely disrupt our thinking is Jo Ann Jenkins, the current CEO of AARP. She recently released a book, aptly titled “Disrupt Aging: A Bold New Path to Living Your Best Life at Every Age”. I received a copy of the book during this year’s BlogHer conference.

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One of the things that I really liked about this book was the casual, conversational style that Jenkins talks about aging. The book is filled with stories and is well organized. It includes a resource section so, it’s a book that someone should think about reading before retirement. Then maybe pick it up every couple of years to see how your thoughts about aging and retirement are evolving. For me, there were three big takeaways from the book:

You must take care of you. I mean this in two ways. First, our physical health is important – eating right, exercise, sleep, etc. It doesn’t mean you can’t ever have a donut, but as we age, we have to think about how to maintain our health and well-being. Disrupting aging is about staying educated about wellness.

We must also find a way to carve out time for our passions. Maybe that’s learning how to play an instrument. Or photography. For me, it’s writing this blog. Taking care of ourselves includes being happy and content. We might not be able to do everything, but we need to find time for enjoyment.

Financial education is important. So often, the entire conversation about retirement is about money. And don’t get me wrong, saving money for retirement is important. But financial education is about more than stocks, annuities, and IRA accounts. To disrupt aging, we get educated and formulate a financial plan for the future.

It’s also about major financial decisions like where to live and whether to rent or buy. Do you want to retire in a walkable city and not own a car? Or live somewhere more remote and figure out how to get around when driving isn’t an option? Financial education is about saving and spending wisely.

Think about an encore. I’m reluctant to say encore career because maybe a second career isn’t what a person wants or needs. But I will say that people need to plan their departure from the workforce. Maybe your encore is moving from full-time to part-time then to full retirement.

It’s possible an encore could involve volunteerism. Or a hobby that turns into a full-time obligation like acting in community theater. Our encore is something that we can pour some energy into. When you get back 8+ hours a day, you probably want to do something with that time in your retirement life.

Efforts to disrupt aging isn’t going to happen overnight. In fact, I’d toss out there that each of us might disrupt aging in our own unique way. But to make the most of our retirement, we have to start thinking about – and planning for – our ability to disrupt aging.

6 Reasons You Should Embrace #Unretirement

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Over on my other blog, HR Bartender, I recently wrote about the reasons that human resources professionals should embrace the concept of unretirement. But it occurred to me as I was writing the post that individuals looking at their future might not be totally convinced that the concept of unretirement is right for them.

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So, I came up with a list of reasons that someone might use to decide if they should think about unretirement as an option.

  1. You like working. According to Gallup, 2 out of 3 employees are disengaged. We spend so much time focused on the disengaged statistic that we forget 1 out of 3 ARE engaged. There are plenty of people in this world that their passion is their work. There’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe at some point, those engaged employees will simply want to work less. And organizations will be thrilled to retain their expertise.
  1. You want to finally do your dream job. While I understand that I just finished talking about employees who are happy with their jobs, let’s face it, some of us like our professions and we’re good at them, but it’s not our dream job. Unretirement allows us to get the education we want to pursue our encore career.
  1. You want to make a little extra money. Regardless of how much money you have and what’s going on with Social Security and Medicare, we have to think about living on a budget. Which means that having the ability to make a little extra money might be attractive. Maybe it’s for a trip you’ve always wanted to take. Or a little splurge – like shoes and handbags.
  1. You’re ready to give back. When we’re busy climbing the corporate ladder and raising children, volunteering can move lower on the priority list. Now it’s time. It could be mentoring someone in your industry or volunteering to be an usher at your local theatre. The point is, that carving out time to give back to the community that supported you is important.
  1. You want to learn something new. If you aren’t looking for an encore career, you might want to take up a new hobby. It might be to play an instrument or learn a language or take up crocheting. Maybe there’s something that’s been on your ‘to-do’ list for a long time and you want to make it happen.
  1. You want to pass along your knowledge and skills. This kinda goes along with #4 about giving back. Whether that’s coaching someone inside the company you work for or by sharing your experiences writing a blog/book, unretirement allows you to do those things.

Unretirement says that there’s no pre-determined age restrictions on living life. Of course, there are government retirement-related programs and you’ll want to understand how those work. That doesn’t mean that life stops. However, unretirement takes planning both in terms of figuring out what you want the future to look like and designing a road map to get there.

Image captured by Keith Lauby on the streets of San Francisco, CA