Reflect On Your Interests and Values
Managing the Early Days - Part 2
What are you going to do with all your newfound spare time? Well, I recommend that you start early retirement by reflecting on what truly matters to you. What activities energise you? What skills do you want to develop? What intrigues you? What causes do you care about? How do you want to impact the world around you? What’s important to you?
It’s important to capture these interests and values in writing, as crisp as you can. Writing is an excellent way of thinking.
Some answers will be on the tip of your tongue, but others won’t reveal themselves to you until you’ve put in some deep work. “Reflect” is a deliberate verb in the header here—writing down your interests and values once won’t be enough. You need to revisit, refine, and adjust them. The work is worth it. A well-considered list will guide your priorities, screen your decisions, and shape how you spend your post-retirement days.
Maybe try this guided, step-by-step process to help uncover your personal principles if you’re not sure where to start. Otherwise, there are lots of lists online to help you consider your most important values. Or you could even engage ChatGPT in an interactive dance:
I'm reflecting on what truly matters to me as I enter early retirement, and I’d like your help. Can you guide me through a series of questions to help clarify my values, interests, and priorities? Please help me think through the following areas, one by one:
What activities have energised or brought me joy in the past, and how might I incorporate more of them into my life?What skills or talents do I want to develop or refine in this next phase?What topics, causes, or ideas naturally intrigue me, and why do they hold my interest?What causes or issues do I deeply care about, and how can I contribute to them?What kind of impact do I want to have on the world, my community, or the people around me?
Feel free to expand on my answers and ask follow-up questions as we go.
Here are my values, which I drafted in 2012 and keep tweaking:
Love PEOPLE and be part of a COMMUNITY:
I want to share my life with a small group of family, friends and workmates who I care deeply about.
I want to connect people to one another.
I always want to be able to make conversation with people, regardless of their position or background.
I will do my best to think the best of everyone. I will expect the best from people, and believe in them.
I will strive to be a decent human: honest, loyal, kind, willing to admit mistakes.
I will be the best Dad I can be.
LEARN AND GROW:
I want to keep learning about things that are interesting and important.
I want to experience other cultures and other countries.
I want to mentor and be mentored.
I want to cultivate varied interests and have the time to pursue them.
I want to be really good at what I chose to do. More than competent.
I want to be better today than I was yesterday.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE, and do something important and worthwhile:
I want to live life on purpose.
I want to be part of something that's bigger than myself, part of a team that is making a difference.
I want to change things for the better.
I want to inspire and encourage others. I want my kids to be proud of me.
I want to labour to do good rather than be rich.
GET STUFF DONE:
I want to build stuff and solve problems.
I want to be passionate about whatever it is that I'm doing.
I don't want to waste my life force in meaningless meetings, political arguments, commuting or with negative people who suck up my energy.
Up next, using these values and interests to feed into some long-term planning.