Set yourself up for success With These 5 Pillars
Whether you’re grieving the loss of your career due to the pandemic or you want to take the reins and start a new chapter in your life, you might be thinking you need to wait until life returns to normal before you can begin to even think about what’s next. Surprisingly, the opposite is true.
Now is actually an ideal time to start!
Disruption, challenges and change inspire creativity, purpose and new beginnings. If you do the groundwork now, as life and the economy reopen, you’ll be ready to blossom into your next chapter and make it your best yet. The freedoms, activities, work and connections to loved ones that you may have recently lost will help you clarify what is most important in your life and help to point you in the direction of your next chapter. By the way, this is not to minimize the need for grieving the losses you experience. It’s important to make the space to embrace the emotions of grief and to reach out for help when needed.
I started my next chapter at 50+ the hard way, and you don’t have to. When I left my long-time successful corporate career, 
I was executive of an international training company in the San Francisco Bay Area. My love of outdoor adventure inspired a move to the mountains of Sun Valley, Idaho. I was looking forward to the play and freedom, thinking they were going to fill my life with new meaning. I quickly found myself grieving the purpose, people, challenge and structure of my corporate life and realized that just play and freedom were not going to cut it. It took me two years of struggling and research to figure out what it would take to create a meaningful and fulfilling life chapter, and another year of work to make it real.
If only I knew then, what I know now, I could have prepared well before I launched and not had to suffer through a multi-year transition.
Now I know it takes reflection, intention, planning and action to clarify and build these five essential life pillars to create a life that is wildly fulfilling:
People – Who are the loved ones, friends, and colleagues you want by your side for the journey forward?
Purpose – What is a form of work that is important and meaningful to you that utilizes the talents, skills and experience you most enjoy in service of something you care about?
Pleasure – This is where your bucket list fits in. What are the day-to-day activities you enjoy most? What are the getaways you want to plan and look forward to in the years ahead?
Place – What type of home do you want in your next chapter? Do you want a garden? Do you want to downsize or change geographies?
Prosperity –This is both a material and a spiritual topic, especially in the second half of life. In addition to managing your finances, what are the practices you enjoy that support your health and wellbeing? What are the spiritual beliefs and practices that are meaningful to you?
How to begin? Set aside reflection time to start the process and keep a journal of your thoughts and ideas. Reflect and recapture dreams you haven’t had the time to realize in the past and begin to build the bridge to what’s next.
Download a free workbook for this process at: The 5 Essential Pillars to Your Next Chapter.
The process of exploring, clarifying and taking action steps in these five pillars of your life take time, intention and attention. Dive in with a perspective of discovery and adventure. Allow the process to create a sense of joy and purpose in your life. The vision of your next chapter will start to take shape and you’ll be inspired to take action to make it real.
Sabrina Roblin, CPCC is a retired executive, founder of Life Reinspired, is happily enjoying her best chapter of life. She now helps others do the same. To learn more contact Sabrina at: info@lifereinspired.com at www.lifereinspired.com.
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