Taking Small Steps: Treating Coaching Training as an Experiment
I’ve decided to follow my curiosity and interest in reinventing my own retirement and helping others to reinvent theirs.
My first experiment in this direction is to complete a Certified Professional Retirement Coach (CPRC) course by completing one module weekly over the next three months. The course involves reading, reflection, exams, and coaching practice.
After I complete the course, I will reflect on and evaluate my experience and feelings. If it feels like a good fit, I may take further steps to start a part-time retirement coaching practice.
Or, I may decide to use the training to help me better write and informally coach others, lead webinars, or design an online retirement transition course. There are lots of options and opportunities available.
My Goal: Helping Others Reinvent Retirement
Over the last few years, I’ve developed an interest in helping others (and myself!) to navigate retirement.
I’ve come to understand that our culture does almost nothing to prepare us mentally for retirement, and many are not prepared for the loss of identity, purpose, status, and social connections when they leave work. I experienced this myself after my retirement and struggled for a couple of years to find a new identity and purpose.
I’m interested in potentially working as a retirement coach one-on-one with singles and couples to help them thrive in retirement. I have a background in counseling, teaching in classes and in my writing, and coaching and teaching estate planning clients. These experiences would directly support working as a retirement coach.
As my curiosity and interest have grown, I’ve given a few webinar talks about retirement transition and appeared as a guest on a podcast. I’ve also written several blog posts about retirement.
My Personal Motivation: Making Retirement Meaningful
In my retirement, I want to do meaningful and purposeful work. I want to make a difference in people’s lives by helping retirees plan for and navigate their retirement.
I want to contribute my voice to those seeking to reinvent traditional concepts of retirement, and help singles and couples to prepare and reinvent themselves as retirees.
What’s Next? Keeping an Open Mind
I’ve already begun my certification training. I’m guessing being a retirement coach might be a good fit for me. But I also want to treat this as a series of Tiny Experiments where I stop, evaluate, and decide what direction to take next, if any, as I complete each experiment. I intend to follow my curiosity during this process and see what I enjoy doing.
This is a departure from how I normally do these kinds of things. I typically set a goal (like becoming a retirement coach) and then do what’s necessary to achieve it. But I’ve come to realize that a better way is to follow my curiosity and do tiny experiments to see what resonates with me. Instead of making a big commitment to what I’m guessing what might be a good fit for me, I’m approaching it as an experiment to gather information and learn what really resonates with me, based on evidence.
Regardless of which specific direction I choose to go in, I see myself helping retirees find a new identity and purpose for living and enjoy fulfilling, meaningful retirements. That’s the kind of service I find exciting and rewarding.
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, and improvements to the text.
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