Last week, I introduced a new friend, John, in the blog: Are You Two Faced?.  If you missed it, I urge you to check it out and then continue on with me here.

As John shared his story about working, he also provided important insights about retirement.  First, he planned it.  He knew several years before he retired that he wanted to, and he held that goal in the forefront of his conversations with his company.  When asked to take on an international assignment, he took it while negotiating all the way through to the end of the assignment.  Not only was he able to negotiate on what the assignment would look like while he was in it, but he negotiated how it would end.  He obtained agreements on when he would return,  how long he would stay and what his transition would be.  The big lesson I took away was negotiating the entire package – the full window to retirement.  Too many of us are thinking about it and don’t have a solid plan on when it will be or what it will look like.  The key is, let’s start putting pen to paper on that now. Let’s make some decisions on what we know we want, even if we haven’t figured it all out.  We can always change the plan, but it’s hard to adjust from no plan.

The other very loud piece I heard and appreciated in John’s scenario is be in position to negotiate. What does that mean?  He was excellent.  No two ways about it. If you are not excellent, you reduce your opportunity to negotiate much of anything.  And it doesn’t matter as much the level, it’s the excellence that provides the gateway to ask for and receive what you want.  Don’t worry about the time past and the excellence missed, just be excellent going forward.  We can retire the way we want to.  

Dr. Lisa

PS: Our theme song is “Keep the Faith” by Michael Jackson. I am choosing this song for us this week because MJ reminds us how to get to Excellence and he should know…😊