5 Principles for Living Your Best Retirement

Do you know the 5 Principles for Living your Best Retirement? Well, after today’s episode, you will!

Welcome, all you Living Your Best Retirement folks, both young and not so young. I’m Coach Ledford, and I’m going to take you on a trip to better understand the pivotal role these 5 Principles play in leading Your Best Retirement Life.

Financial Income vs. PERMA Principles

A lot of attention is put out there about our financial income and how we are going to make it to the finish line. While finances are a major topic that we will address over and over as our group goes forward, surprisingly, that is not the element that is most crucial to Living Your Best Retirement.

The key is knowing and practicing the 5 Principles we call PERMA. In 1998, Dr. Martin Seligman of the American Psychological Association shifted that organization’s focus from the negative aspects of mental health to the positive. He identified 5 areas that promote a universally productive lifestyle.

PERMA stands for:

• Positive Emotions

• Engagement

• Relationships

• Meaning, and

• Accomplishment.

These principles (more than money) are the ones that enable you to enhance and advance your health, your wealth, and most importantly, your legacy. After all, that’s the only thing that’s going to endure long after you’re gone!

Rediscovering PERMA in Retirement

In our work life and while we were raising the kids, we practiced these principles without even thinking about it. But as full-time work has receded, the kids are out of the house, and you have returned from what Alligator Curt calls the Retirement Honeymoon, we’re left with the creepy feeling that something is missing.

To get back on track, that is to say, to start getting the psychological income we used to get at work and home, we now need to hunt ways to re-employ these principles and live Our Best Retirement. Down below is a handout we want you to fill out to intentionally think about how you’re going to incorporate these principles and win our final lap. As I describe them, you will readily see you used to do them all the time, but now that we are farther along on our journey, not as much.

The PERMA Breakdown

P stands for Positive Emotion. Lots of that in the 30 years of work and raising a family. But where does that come from now?

E stands for Engagement! If you’re at a party or social event and folks ask you what you do and you say, “I’m retired!” that ends the conversation. Suddenly, you don’t have anyone to talk to, and all you can do is hit the punch bowl and hope it’s spiked!

R stands for Relationships. Sure, you had many of those at work or while you were coaching the kids’ sports teams, but where are those relationships now? And maybe more importantly, have you been able to replace the level of intimacy, trust, and respect that took many years to build while you were in the workforce? Probably not.

M stands for Meaning! At work or with your kids, there was always a goal, a mission to be accomplished. You had a sense you were contributing to something greater than yourself! How do you replace that?

Incidentally, there was a study done by a Swiss researcher who tracked a number of 64-year-olds heading into retirement and discovered that among those who did not have a few “closer than a brother” relationships or a very clear sense of purpose, the chances of early symptoms of dementia were apparent by the time these folks turned 68. In another study we will discuss later, loneliness leads to a decline in physical and mental health and does more to shorten life expectancy than diabetes and obesity combined!

A stands for Accomplishment or Achievement. Later on, we are going to explain how this contributes to Your Best Retirement Action Plan. Not all of what you consider accomplishments matter. If it isn’t supporting the expansion of God’s word or making life a little better for people, it isn’t going to be remembered very long.

Let’s Review

Last week’s challenge question was this:

In regard to the three key ingredients — your health, wealth and legacy —

1.     Name the area that causes you the greatest concern about your retirement situation.

2.     What elements under your control can have a positive impact on that situation?

The Challenge

Here is the Challenge for this week. Click the link below.

Pick one of the PERMA Principles: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, or Accomplishment. How are you going to intentionally incorporate that principle in your Best Retirement Life?

Hold on to your answer, and file it somewhere. Even if you haven’t thought of this before, remember great starts are not as important as great finishes.

(Unvarnished Advertisement) In the fall, we are going to offer a 2-hour workshop where we will take a deeper dive into each of these principles. So be looking forward to that.

Supporting Scripture

Here’s the Bible verse that supports the topic this week:

Psalm 92:13 “The righteous shall flourish in the courts of our God; they will continue to bring forth fruit in their old age!”

It costs you nothing to follow the 5 principles of PERMA. It’s free! Implement one or more of these to maximize Your Best Retirement.

That’s all for now, cats and kittens. You’re going to go far living YBR! See you next week. Hey! If you know another retiree or someone about to be a retiree who would benefit from this newsletter, find the “Share” button below and send this to a friend.

Now go fill out your worksheet and go out there and practice like you’ve never won and play like you’ve never lost. I’m Coach Ledford, and I look forward to seeing you next time.

Don’t forget to share this episode with someone you know. They might really appreciate it!