Table of contents:

1. Forbes Magazine on Retirement – Desperation or Aspiration?
2. Being the Change: Service Summit
3. How Might We?
4. Teleclass Calendar
   

Desperation or Aspiration?

Is there anyone who still thinks that retirement is a given? Even if you've socked away all the money you need to support decades of idleness, think again. Here are some highlights – and key trends for the 21^st Century -- from a forthcoming Forbes Magazine report, on the newsstands in early October. Read the sidebars, too.

• ...work is fast becoming the crucial fourth leg supporting retirement--along with the traditional three of Social Security, employer pensions and private savings.
  

• Almost a fifth of workers 50 and over are self-employed, and, according to a Rand study, a third of them joined the self-employed ranks at age 50 or later.
  

• "People in their 60s and beyond want a new balance, to stay engaged and continue earning. They are partly driven by desperation--they are going to need the money--and partly driven by aspiration. They want to stay connected." -- Ken Dychtwald, Age Wave

• 
  Enough said. Next steps? Get going on a plan for the kind of life you want to lead in the future. (The 2young2retire course can help.) For health as well as wealth, make sure it includes some kind of work, for a paycheck or for the satisfaction of doing something useful and generative. Then, check out these sites below.
  

http://encore.org/careers.cfm For nonprofit and work with social significance

www.bridgestar.org Another source for nonprofit jobs

www.retirementjobs.com Just started a partnership with AARP

www.score.org Service Corps of Retired Executives. The shortest distance to a great business plan and no-nonsense advice, FREE

www.craigslist.org Yes, Craig's List. Well worth checking out for local gigs of all duration and pay scales.

www.linkedin.com Fire up and grow your network

www.workforce50.com/ Formerly seniorjobbank.com

Being the Change

Got time? If you've completed your core career and your nest has emptied, chances are you suddenly find yourself with more time on your hands than you ever imagined possible. If you're like most of us in our 50s and beyond, you've been looking forward to unstructured time, your ticket to freedom, creativity, new possibilities (see above). You wouldn't be at all unusual if you also find a strong desire to give back rising to the surface now. How might you channel this new found time and motivation to good use? Well Service Summit, a two-day event in New York City (Sept 11-12) has some ideas for you.

You could begin by signing the Declaration of Service. You might consider dedicating at least 50 hours annually as a volunteer with local service organizations, non-profits, hospitals, schools, faith-based institutions or other places of need or through an enterprise or initiative you create? You could join a local event (or plan your own) on the National Day of Action, September 27.

You could become part of a movement for service with a 2020 goal of 100 million citizen volunteers in schools, workplaces, and faith-based and community institutions each and every year (up from 61 million today), and to increasing numbers of Americans annually who will commit a year of their lives to national service. No small thing.

How Might We?

Sounds like a question, but actually it’s much more. These three little words suggest that there is always an answer even if it is not immediately apparent. In fact, how-might-I/we? encourages us to dig a little deeper and get beneath our preconceived notions and cultural conditioning. It’s a radical, mind-opening approach that costs nothing and can lead to big breakthroughs.

We first encountered this model at a day long session at IDEO, a Palo Alto design firm and innovation generator, courtesy of the Purpose Prize summit. Here’s a quote from IDEO’s thinking on community that gives you an idea of what they are about: We believe that the power of community is stronger than that of a single individual, organization, or brand. Beyond the physical, cognitive and emotional factors of design, we foremost consider the social factors, asking questions and evaluating answers: How might the user’s relationships influence or motivate behaviors? How might an experience be shared with others? What is the meaning of belonging, and of identity? What drives the feeling of membership or loyalty to a bigger cause or group?

A good time to apply the how-might-we (or I) question is now, between midlife and truly old age (whatever that is). Use it to set yourself free from preconceived notions of what you ’should’ be doing, and be guided by the possibilities of discovering something you really love. Have fun. Surprise yourself. Innovate.

POTPOURRI

• Nearly ten years ago, Richard and Michele Steckel decided they couldn't sit by and just watch as people all over the world experienced the mayhem of ethnic cleansing, race riots and hatred. To bridge divides, they sought to chronicle in photographs the humanity shared by all people - a project that led to a traveling exhibit they named "The Milestones Project." Their focus: children. In December 2007, the Milestones Project was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award by the city of Littleton, Colorado, and Arapahoe Community College. More recently, it was awarded the NEA (National Education Association) Author-Illustrator Human and Civil Rights Award.

• Teleclasses for the 2young2retire course forming now. Click here for the calendar. For more on why you should consider this cutting edge educational format, read Thomas Leonard's Top Ten Reasons
  

• Syndicated columnist Mark Miller queried his Linked In network: What are your tips for getting hired after 50? The responses make for a lively and information packed read and demonstrated the power of social networking for professionals.
  

• Hate meetings? You're not alone. Meetings aren't going away any time soon, but they are morphing into something much, much more ... well, human-scale, effective, even fun. Check out Open Space Technology and you are likely to start imagining where you could apply it. Four simple principles say it all (if a little ungrammically):

1. Whoever comes is the right people.

2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.

3. Whenever it starts is the right time.

4. When it's over, it's over.

Robert's Rules of Order, make tracks! 

Stay well, make it new, make it better!

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