With Purpose Success, part 42

If it doesn't come naturally, you may not know where to start.understand the correlation between having goals and achieving their dreams. They think just trying to keep moving forward is sufficient. But it usually is not. Setting a goal-and identifying checkpoints-allows you to monitor your progress and adjust your plans along the way. 

Early success and popularity have a way of making you complacent, which if you can't shake it will catch up with you. goals because they do not want to stand out. They feel safe when they conform. 

Maybe you're reluctant to set new goals at this age. Don't be. Try to understand your feelings and correct your thinking. It's not too late. 

It's never too late. In fact, in the context of living to eighty-five or one hundred-and-five-it's quite early in the game, and the fears and excuses 

I've described can be easily overcome through the wisdom and experience of maturity. 

A whole new period of productivity and engagement is opening before you. In recent years I and others have tried to put a name on this period when you may be done focusing on your career but be far from resigned to playing golf or bridge every day. You will most likely stay active in your family and community, and possibly even engaged in some sort of paid work. No word or term for this new phase of life has quite captured the public consciousness. Rehirement had legs for a while. Jeri Sedlar's clever word rewire gets used here and there. Neil Young asserted, "I won't retire but I might retread." In The Power Years, we wrote about freetirement and unretiring. 

Rehire. Rewire. Retread. Re-hmmm. As I said, none of these has really stuck, even though all of them get at the essential point that in the new life stage I'm describing you'll need to keep setting new goals and having big dreams. You will not retreat or withdraw, which is the literal meaning of retire. Instead, as you cross into maturity you'll likely want to reboot and reengage, and find ways to apply your skills and hard-won insights to new endeavors and to learn new skills and tackle old problems as you infuse purpose into the many years still before you. 

Now, as you reach your sixties and beyond you may have reached the critical point of economic freedom; having saved in your 401(k) plan, paid down the mortgage, and watched your youngest child leave the nest. 

You'll be able to use your time however you choose, and hopefully you'll have the good health and longevity to possibly do something grand. You may write a book on a subject that fascinates you. You may turn your love of music into a new career organizing concerts that benefit a cause. 

You might study scripture and lead a congregation. Maybe you'll decide to mentor a child, manage a book drive, or raise money for a third world business that needs help getting off the ground.