As a blogger, many books pass my desk for review. One that caught my eye this season is Hello Someday by Kobi Yamada and John Christianson. It's a gift book to inspire and celebrate retirement.
It's from Compendium, one of my favorite publishers of motivational gifts and journals.
I retired from my full-time career in my mid-fifties and wish I'd had this book to guide me. According to the publishers at Compendium, "In the next 15 years, more than 20 percent of the U.S. population will be over the age of 65." That means a lot of baby boomers may be retiring. However, just because you are retiring doesn't mean you can't pursue other passions.
That's where Hello Someday comes in. It offers an optimistic attitude about retirement, with questions and activities to get you thinking about and designing the next chapter of your life.
Hello Someday makes a great gift for a future retiree.
I enjoyed this book so much that I asked if I could interview one of the authors. I wanted to know more from those who created Hello Someday. Coauthor John Christianson shared his thoughts:
John Christianson is coauthor of Hello Someday.
Q: Tell me about your background? Have you retired yet?
J: I'm the founder and CEO of Highland Private, a boutique wealth management firm in Bellevue, Washington. During my career, I've been fortunate to have worked with some of the most successful wealth creators in the country. I have a unique perspective about the influence of money on life, values and purpose. I am not retired but I think a lot about retirement and how my clients prepare for and are affected by the transition into a new way of living. I enjoy not only advising clients on wealth issues, but exploring with them what it means to live fully, so I'm really working from a 'wealth and life stewardship blend' that gives me great satisfaction.
Q: What inspired you to write Hello Someday?
J: The inspiration for the book was Kobi Yamada's. Kobi is a very giving and thoughtful person who has authored many successful gift books. During one of our lunch meetings, I mentioned to him that I might want to write a book someday about my experience working with high net worth individuals. He invited me to coauthor a book project. It sounded like a fun experience, so I agreed. My contribution was bringing the financial mindset to the content.
Q: How did you come up with the specific questions to prompt a person to think more about his or her "someday"?
J: The questions I sourced came from my experience helping professionals, executives and business owners transition into retirement or other "second act" pursuits. No matter how large a person's assets at the time of retirement, I've found that retirement is a profound transition for many people. It requires thinking about what's important to you now as well as celebrating all you have accomplished. It requires you to understand your finances and how you are going to fund your retirement. It requires you to think about your identity. If I'm not this person with this specific career or the owner of that particular business, who am I? This is not always an easy shift to make and there are a lot of aspects to it.
Q: What is your advice to baby boomers who are contemplating retirement?
J: Get prepared before you transition. Be forming a strong vision now for how you would like your life to be in this next season. Do this by tapping into sources of inspiration and asking yourself future-oriented questions such as those in Hello Someday. Understand where you stand financially and get clear on your financial resources. Get advisers on board who can support you.
Get in touch with those parts of yourself you may have put aside in order to do your career or raise a family or what have you. Find the courage to change the rhythm of your life to one that will create more satisfaction and significance.
Q: I have found that I have so many interests that I don't have enough time to pursue all my passions. However, I know that some people worry about not having enough interests and worry how will they fill their days. Any thoughts about this topic?
J: I understand that worry and believe that once the "shackles" of have-tos and gotta-dos are removed and you have the opportunity to be proactive instead of reactive about life, immense energy and joy will fill the vacuum. It's never too soon to think about what causes matter to you that you might want to get more involved with and to think about trying new things.
Q: What's your favorite writing exercise from the book?
J: I particularly enjoy the "beginner" exercise. In the past five years I've given myself permission to be a beginner in a variety of areas, mostly hobbies such as rowing, and can really see the value this has created. Being a beginner gets me out of my pre-scripted and routine schedule.
What Are You Going to Embrace in Your Retirement?
With John's favorite exercise in mind, I leave you with a few "What if" questions from Hello Someday to get you thinking about your own retirement. You can ponder them even if you are not retiring anytime soon. Here goes:
I embraced my yoga studies as a beginner when I retired from my full-time career. It's been the most difficult yet most rewarding thing I've done.
This post originally appeared on aboomerslifeafter50.com.
