Retirement goals (and anti-goals)
What, you think retirement means I won't be setting goals and then executing against them?
It’s pretty much impossible to stop being an eldest daughter over-achiever. So I’ll stop trying to fight it and will embrace it, even in retirement.
That’s why I’m creating goals. Not KPIs. Not OKRs. Just simple goals. I don’t need to measure results or impact, but I do have Shit I Want to Get Done™. Because I have an obsessive need to provide clarity and structure, I’ve bucketed my goals into a few categories: personal, house, writing, parenting, financial. These are all focused on the first year or two since goals need to be time bound to be actionable (ever heard of SMART goals?). I expect the specific goals will shift over time, although I expect the categories will not.
Goals
Personal
Nurture friend and family relationships: I will go out of my way to see friends and family (ideally IRL) and make time for these relationships in ways I haven’t ever before.
Get in shape: I haven’t had time to regularly exercise in YEARS! I’m excited to get back into an exercise routine. I’ve even contemplated trying CrossFit (wish me luck).
House
Get organized: You will never see me without a blur background filter on Zoom or equivalent because my office is a mess. I may be very structured and organized in my online and work life, but in my personal life in my house, I’m a hot mess. I have bought into the Wall Control system (seriously, this thing is great) and will get my shit together.
Paint: Ok, this feels really tactical, but we still have spots in our house that need to be painted since we renovated it 3 years ago 😱. I also plan to paint the front door and trim.
Writing
Publish my first novel: I’ve mentioned before that I wrote a novel. It’s Middle Grade (think Harry Potter level) science fiction that I wrote during NaNoWriMo in 2021. From 2021- 2022 I edited and refined the work and got feedback from beta readers. From 2022-2024ish I tried to get a literary agent via submitting query letters. Kate McKean’s Substack is the absolute bible for this, check it out if you are considering querying literary agents! After 125 rejections I’ve decided to throw in the towel on traditional publishing and self-publish. I’ll have lots more to say about this in the coming weeks, stay tuned.
Finish the second novel: I have the beginnings of a second novel, this one a young reader chapter book (think ages 7-10) about my son’s imaginary creatures called Mackys. My son and I have been developing the world of Mackys for several years and now all we need is to populate it with stories!
Parenting
Be more present for my son: This is a big one that I don’t know how exactly I will measure if I’m doing it or not, but I have to try. When I was working at an intense ~60/hours/week job plus traveling, I didn’t have the capacity to be a fully present parent. Even when I was spending dedicated one-on-one time with my son, I could feel the nag of a work issue in the back of my mind or the urge to check slack in my fingertips. As the fist of corporate America slowly begins to relax its grip on me, I am hoping to have more mental space to be present for my kid. That means more patience, more focus, greater connection.
Financial
Make enough money to cover expenses. It’s pretty straightforward, but I’m trying to avoid digging into my cash reserves for as long as possible. That means piecing together enough small projects and other recurring revenue to cover our household expenses. I have a few major advantages here: I own my house and have a low mortgage rate and I have rental properties that have decent gross income. Pair that with the fact that my son goes to public school and doesn’t do 1,000 extra-curricular activities (his choice!), and the fact that we put more miles on our bike than our car means our monthly expenses aren’t exorbitant.
Non-Goals
A non-goal is something that may happen as an unintended consequence of my actions, but I won’t be mad about it:
Build a newsletter following: Believe it or not, I’m not necessarily trying to go viral or build a huge following. I’m writing this because I love to write and I love to share. If I build a following, that’s amazing. But it’s not something I’ve explicitly set out to do.
Write a best-selling book: I have no delusions that I will ever see significant success as a writer. But what’s important to me is the act of writing and publishing. For me, writing is an important creative outlet. When I don’t write, I feel stifled, frustrated, pent-up. And publishing for me is a means of sharing my ideas, even if it’s just with a few people. Similar to the first non-goal, I’ll be happy if more people want to read my book, but that doesn’t define the success of the project in my mind.
Anti-goals
I also have anti-goals. Things I do not want to do.
Monetize all my hobbies: A common refrain in my family when someone creates something great is “you could sell that.” Is it just my family? Why is selling something the mark of worthiness? Yes, I make lots of things I could sell. But I won’t. I make because I like to make, not because I want to monetize it. As soon as you start monetizing what you make, it becomes less fun.
Do consulting/advisory work more than 25 hours a week: I will be picking up some advisory and consulting work to offset living expenses. This could EASILY turn into another 60+ hour a week job (especially given my personality). My plan is to cap consulting/advisory work at 25 hours MAX to leave time for my other creative projects and family time.
The elephant in the room: is this retirement?
I’ve had a few friends say to me “this sounds awfully busy for retirement” or similar. My standard response is, “what is retirement, anyways?” From watching my parents and even grandparents, I saw retirement as leaving the full-time workforce. Do you still have projects? Do you still make money? Absolutely. But you are no longer attempting to ascend a career ladder or pursue full-time employment. That’s my interpretation anyways. What does retirement mean to you?
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