About a year and a half ago I wrote a retirement blog the title of which was, does the retired person need to be creative? Self-explanatory vis a vis the title I think. I haven’t read it through yet so I don’t know whether I made a convincing case or failed miserably. Maybe before I get to the end of this blog, I might have a better idea.
I was reminded of the blog and the question it asked about retirement and creativity on reading the Guardian colour supplement last weekend. On the front cover was the headline – Blue Sky Thinking: Is it time to embrace your plan B career? The gist of the article was, given that these are challenging times, should we take the opportunity to try something different in our lives. I suppose on the ‘what have I got to lose?’ basis.
Two things struck me. One was the phrase blue sky thinking. It resonated with me because it was a concept I was very fond of when I worked with schools and pupils with whom they were stuck, they’d tried everything and nothing worked. At least that was the starting point. I wanted them to come up with some new ways of working with these ‘impossible’ kids. So I set up a process that would generate some of that blue sky thinking.
I claim no credit for the actual term, it originated from a company called Synectics. My achievement was in having the sense to rip off the term and work within it. I haven’t got the time or the memory to describe here the fairly complicated process I used to generate the ideas which the school would then put into practice. Look it up, it’s on the internet somewhere.
So that was the first part of the attraction, good old fashioned nostalgia. The second part, and again this is not a new thought, I thought a time of challenge such as we’re in right now, is similar in many ways to the process of retiring. Same challenge, same ‘what have I got to lose?’ and same the sky is the limit in terms of what I can now do with my life. Finances and good health permitting.
The sub-heading of the above article was, ‘a beginners guide to taking the plunge’. That struck me as being like retirement. You’ve probably never retired before. Although I retired twice. Once at 60 and the second time at 65. This because I really didn’t like the first time at all. Come to that, the second time was fairly scary.
So with these thoughts in my head I read the article. Unsurprisingly it was disappointing. Three people figured in the body of the article, one guy who was giving up being an oil executive to become a teacher, the second a woman giving up being a hairdresser to be a life coach and the third chap somebody retraining as a cider maker. OK, but not inspirational, at least not to me.
Finally, there were 6 tips for the reader who wanted a new life-style. 1) Act first, think later. In the sense of get on with it and see what happens. I like this advice if you want to have different actions to the sensible course(s) of action. 2) Ask for help. Well OK but not earth-shattering. 3) Stay optimistic. Well duh. 4) Prioritise possibilities over plans. Yes, I like this approach. Don’t get weighed down by common-sense or you’ll never get going. 5) Run to, not from. This is a bit obscure for me and 6) Success is a squiggly not a straight line. Yep, I think that just about makes sense.
Just let me say before I go any further. A word of caution. The thing about choosing what your retirement will be about, it doesn’t have to be ‘blue sky’. To have a successful retirement it can be just being sensible. Not everybody needs to have an original, different, wacky retirement. Some people can make sensible decisions about their retirement.
But for some of us (this would be me) after seven years of retirement I still (maybe even more so now) ask myself, is where I am where I expected to be round about now. Is this where I’m meant to be retirement-wise?
If the answer to these questions is no, then this might be where the blue sky thinking comes in, where we need to resort to creative ideas. Where we need imaginative ideas to come into the picture. There are hundreds of creative ideas on the internet. I know because I checked it out.
My modest contributions to the question – what are blue sky ideas, are as follows – look for clues for ideas by reading newspapers, magazines, books, adverts etc for anything that takes your fancy. Write them down even if they’re the smallest and silliest ideas. Combine two or more ideas together so you get a synergy of ideas. Use drawing, collages, written words, audio files etc, to get that synergy. Play with ideas without any evaluation until right at the end and use a lot of ‘what if’ questions. Copy without shame those who have had brilliant ideas already.
So in conclusion, you might be happy with the set-up you already have. Job done. But, if you’re not content with what you have and a sensible approach doesn’t work, then try creative approaches in as many ways / techniques you can find. That’s where blue sky thinking comes in and the answer to the title of this retirement blog.