Beverly McCrostie

Dear Not Ready:
You'd be surprised (or then again, maybe you wouldn't) how often people ask me this—and I'm pleased to say there's a new book that may help provide some answers. It's Too Young to Retire: 101 Ways to Start the Rest of Your Life (Plume, $13), by husband-and-wife authors Marika and Howard Stone. The Stones know where you're coming from. Howard had a decades-long career in ad sales and magazine publishing, while Marika worked as a journalist, public-relations exec, and English teacher. Then they retired—and were soon, they recall, "bored out of our skulls." So they launched second careers. Howard got certified as a life coach and motivational speaker at age 64; Marika is editor-in-chief of a website you may want to check out, www.2young2retire.com.

The Stones would like to see the word "retirement" expunged from the language. "Look it up," they write. "It means 'withdraw' or 'retreat.' Doesn't 'renaissance' or 'graduation' or 'transition' better describe your post-career life?" They note that retirement as we usually think of it "is a relatively new concept.... A few generations ago, before Social Security and full-time leisure became embedded as the 'norm,' elders remained productive members of society." And at almost 56, with life expectancies what they are today, you're not even really an "elder" yet, are you?

Both Too Young to Retire and the website are loaded with ideas that may spark some of your own—including dozens of case studies of people who have built great second careers doing what they love. One example: Danielle Bernstein, 55, after a long career in computers, started a new life based on her passion for hiking. She founded a nonprofit organization called Hiker to Hiker that encourages wilderness conservation. J. Leonard Hornstein, a former juvenile-court judge, stepped down from the bench in 1992 at age 62 and has since had two new careers: first as a law professor, and now, after getting the necessary certificate, as an elementary-school teacher.

How can you get started down the path of identifying what you'd like to do next? The authors recommend these four initial steps:

• Sit down with a pen and paper (or a laptop, or however you're most comfortable) and write a heading: My Dream Job. Then write down everything you can about your ideal job, using as much detail as you can. Write without stopping or editing until you run out of things to say. "Free-writing is a technique that works magic. The goal isn't perfection or eloquence, but truth," the authors write. "Don't worry. You're not obliged to share this with anyone."

• Now think: Where in your life are you already giving expression to some elements of your dream job? "Spread a wide net and don't get hung up on whether you're getting paid for your labor. What you're after is something you can build on, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem at first."

• What one step can you take in the next week to explore your idea more fully? "It doesn't have to be much more than a phone call, half an hour surfing the Internet, or an hour at the library," just to get your juices flowing.

• Create a business card for the career or business you've chosen. (Use a Word or WordPerfect template, then print a couple of sheets on Avery 8371 cards available at most office-supply stores.) "Making your dream concrete, in even a small way, can make it feel almost inevitable."

After 34 years with one company, it may be hard for you to do what car designers call "blue-sky thinking," letting your imagination run where it will. Keep at it until you envision something that really gets your motor running. And at this point in your life, with a financial cushion to fall back on, you don't need to play it too safe. As hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky once told a reporter, "I miss 100% of the shots I don't take." 

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/annie
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