Goal Setting Words for 2020
Planning the Transition
to the Third Stage of Life:
Retiring to Thailand
For over half a decade, I have used a goal setting technique described by Christine Kane and Chris Brogan. They advise selecting one to three words to define intentions for the coming year. Christine's tool for discovering your word for the year is here.
Last year, I picked "Expert" and "Support." The first word acknowledged my desire to be seen as an expert in my field of dispute resolution. The second word acknowledged my need to build and rely on friends and care-givers who could support my emotional and physical well-being.
My post from last year also describes the words I have picked since 2014.
This year, the word I needed came to me easily. It's "Transition."
I learned in the spring semester that Qatar University is forcing me into retirement because I recently passed the retirement age mandated by law.
At first I was angry. I was not ready to give up a teaching career that defined my identity, provided a great income, and kept me intellectually and socially engaged. I began talking with people about the news and got responses that fit into three categories.
The first response was the "we need to find you another job" response. I realized that many of the folks expressing this concern assumed I did not have the financial resources to retire. They assumed that I needed to keep working. They may have been projecting their own anxieties about the cost of retirement (with good reason).
The second response reflected the concern that the capacity I had developed over 38 years as a lawyer, professor, and dispute resolution expert would be lost to the world. I would no longer have the opportunity to share that capacity and develop it in others. I identify strongly with this response. And, because of that, I am exploring two big projects I could do on an entrepreneurial basis. More about those projects as I nail them down.
The third response was the "you are so lucky response." These people are jealous that I can retire. I am growing into this response, but it has taken months of reframed thinking about the change.
As I start a new decade and the third stage of my life, I recognize how lucky I am. I am planning to move to Thailand in June 2020 to stay on a learning curve, give me a base to further explore Asia, and live a lifestyle that would be hard to duplicate in the U.S. on the monthly income I have set for myself.
To make this transition happen, I started with a long "to do" list. Over the last year, I have checked off about half the items, which I will cover in another post.
This week, I will flesh out a more detailed goal list. I like to organize it into several categories:
- Relationships/Romance/Family
- Recreation/Fun
- Health/Well-being
- Money/Finances
- Physical Environment/Home/Garden/Auto
- Personal Growth
- Career Development/Teaching
- Writing
- Absolute Yes
- Absolute No
Christine has also invited her clients to take a reflective look at how the word for the year inspired action and achievement. She asks: "If you’ve ever chosen a word of the year, what was your experience during that year? What happened? What didn’t happen? And most important, how did it open you up?"
In my next post, I'll reflect back over 2019. But to make that assessment, I used another tool created by Sara Arey at Refuture Your Life. She suggests listing 100 things you've accomplished over the last year. More about that in my next post.
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