Creative Retirement Exploration Weekend

Welcome to the Weekend Warm Up

Introduction

We are glad you have chosen to join us for this pre-conference activity of the Creative Retirement Exploration Weekend. While the Weekend will help you consider
your goals and plans in choosing a new retirement communitymoving in retirement. The Warm Up will focus on personal and social implications of the transitions to retirement.
The Weekend Warm Up will be held Friday, May 23, 2008 at the Reuter Center on
the UNCA campus from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Please read the descriptions below, select those workshops that best suit your
interests and return your selection to us (by e-mail, FAX or mail using attached
response sheet) as soon as possible so that we can accommodate your choices.
Remember, each individual needs to make choices. If you have questions,
please feel free to contact us at snodgrass@unca.edu

You will be able to choose three of the following workshops:.

1- Redefining Relationships

Retirement can put familiar people in new contexts and bring new
faces and roles into our lives. Professional circles typically become
supplanted with others from leisure and volunteer involvement, a
change experienced even more dramatically when relocating to
a new area. Do you present yourself as who you were or who you are?....
It can make a difference. How can we best adjust to relationship changes?
Join this session to hear and share ideas for a smoother transition.

2- Timing is Everything: When Should I (We) Retire

Will it be "my" decision "our" decision or "their" decision? What are the
factors to consider when determining when the time is right?
Factors may include: financial security, health, relationships, family
situations, personal goals, declining job satisfaction, or perhaps just
an intense feeling that this is the time. Join this session and explore
these questions and more. Brainstorm with others about what excites
you the most about retirement, or what worries you the most, what
you can control and how you can plan.

3- Un-retiring: Working in Retirement

Is retirement for you? In this session, you will explore your attitudes
and personal reality about retirement and continued work in the
context of current market opportunities. We will discuss the task
of identifying and assessing potential new options for work including
entrepreneurial opportunities.

4- Finding Meaning in Retirement

What is your concept of life in retirement? How are you planning to
use your newfound time? What gives you joy and meaning?
Where are opportunities to increase their measure in your life?
During this session, participants will examine qualities of human
spirituality, love, compassion, patience, commitment, contentment,
and how they bring happiness to one’s self and to others. We will
examine life’s purpose and prioritize what’s important.

5- Recasting your Life for Retirement

The retirement transition offers the opportunity and/or necessity
to restructure many aspects of our lives. We can adapt or fundamentally
change our lives to more closely reflect our personal values.
In this session, participants will take a holistic view of their lives
composed of multiple distinct, yet interrelated, dimensions. We will
identify and discuss areas of desired change, the values that these
changes reflect, potential actions steps, and means for dealing with
obstacles that we may encounter.

6- Money: The Emotional Minefield

Money often sparks hard-to-express feelings that interfere with planning
and decision-making. During exercises and discussions, participants
will begin to identify and navigate through their personal maze of attitudes,
beliefs and feelings about money. The result can clear the way for better communication and rational financial planning as we set new priorities,
and prepare for future needs.

7- Identify

Finding a new identity is often cited as one of the most difficult parts
of the retirement transition; particularly for individuals who lose a role that dominated their pre-retirement life. We will explore the issues of
evolving self-image and external identity, and means to facilitate the
process in the transition.