It’s Never Too Late To Get “AMPed”. Post-career May Be the Best Time!

Time travel with me for a second, will you?

It’s day one of your life – cleaned up, aspirated, swaddled, lying on mom’s chest.

Were you?

  1. Active and engaged?
  2. Passive and inert?

OK – I tried it and it didn’t work for me either. My recall was a tad fuzzy. Perhaps a little early for those esoteric thoughts.

Let’s roll the camera forward three years. Were you #1 or #2?

Now, we’re getting somewhere. My recall of me at that age isn’t much better, but I guarantee I wasn’t #2.  Nor were you. There was some level of “out-of-control” in your life and mine at that age.  That’s our start-up wiring. Perhaps like you, I’ve watched it through my kids and, now, my grandkids.

Have you ever seen a three-year-old that isn’t curious and pretty much into his or her own thing? Active, engaged, curious, self-directed, exploding with mile-a-minute ideas and creativity, all impractical and unmarketable. As parents/grandparents, we roll with it, confident that “this, too, shall pass” and taking comfort in the fact that #2 will eventually prevail.

And then, like most of us, chances are they will ride the #2 bus to the end, creativity and enthusiasm giving way to cultural expectations and the allure of extrinsic rewards of the work world. The final big dose of #2 will come with a full-stop retirement plan where passivity and inertia thrive.

Our default setting gets shifted!

We have lots of help on this journey. For instance, the “5 P’s” that creep into our lives to make sure that the energy, creativity, engagement, unpredictability is corralled back between the culturally-acceptable fences. You remember the P’s, don’t you?

  • Parents
  • Peers
  • Professors
  • Politicians
  • Pundits

Then,  43 or 57, our three-year-old-self is, well – we’re not really sure where it is. And we don’t get much encouragement to try to find it again. It’s not part of the “model.” The “5 C’s” have taken ownership:

  • Comfort
  • Convenience
  • Comparison
  • Conventionality
  • Contentment

And then, mid-life or later, we hear a voice saying “Is this all there is?” Or somebody reminds us that the number of people attending our funeral is going to be largely determined by the weather!

Ouch!

Very few don’t give in to the 5 P’s and C’s. Most of us do.

Are you “Type X” or “Type 1”?

Author Daniel Pink, in his best-seller “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, unpacks some intriguing corollaries to all of the above, based on extensive research into human nature relative to our innate drivers.

Hugely condensed, Pink’s message is that our best self emerges when our rewards are intrinsic (inside) and not extrinsic (external). As an example, recognition versus money.

He takes it further to point out that there are inner drivers that take us to our full potential and fulfillment. They are:

  • Autonomy
  • Mastery
  • Purpose

A-M-P!

He distinguishes between two types of people, Type X and Type 1, saying:

“For Type X’s, the main motivator is external rewards; any deeper satisfaction is welcome, but secondary. For Type 1’s, the main motivator is the freedom, challenge, and purpose of the undertaking itself; any other gains are welcome, but mainly as a bonus.”

The core message in Pink’s book seems to be (I’m 2/3 through it) that we are awakening to the weaknesses inherent in systems built on the extrinsic rewards that have been the predominant model in business tracing back to the start of the industrial age. Smarter managers are now seeing better results when they appeal to, and create an atmosphere for, the motivating force of the intrinsic rewards of having autonomy, pursuing mastery, and doing something with deep purpose.

His message engendered some not-so-positive memories of my 35 years of corporate life, which ended 18 years ago at age 60. I’m challenged to remember any significant intrinsic rewards from my five different work experiences across three different industries.

I was doing it all for the money. For the eventual retirement dream. What I didn’t have, and was never offered, was (drum roll) A-M-P.

My autonomy gave way to a cubicle, an 8 a.m. at-your-desk-or-else edict, and an under-qualified, forever-threatened boss.

My mastery never flourished because shifting corporate programs, policies, products didn’t keep us in one spot long enough to master something – plus, I had no clue what I might want to master. It was all about hitting the numbers and earning the cash.

Purpose? Oh, it was there – it just wasn’t mine. It belonged to senior management and the satisfaction of shareholders.

OK, I’m a whiner, a victim, an anomaly.

Well, I think not, as evidenced by what Forbes reported in 2018 about how employee engagement continues to shrink in the enlightening article entitled “10 Shocking Workplace Stats You Need To Know.” In it, The Conference Board reveals that “- 53% of American workers are currently unhappy at work.” Gallup’s extensive research reveals nearly 20% are actively disengaged.

One out of two has no A-M-P in their lives. One in five is clearly in it only for the extrinsic.

I’m not out to change that!

I’m done with the corporate scene and have no intention of trying to do what Daniel Pink is doing i.e. transforming the way we treat people in the workplace.

But I am out to plant the seeds of the A-M-P principle in the minds of folks at the mid-life, post-career, early-retirement, “third age” phases of life.

It’s at those stages where a crossroads exists: #1 or #2 for the rest of my life?

Parts of #2 are pretty tempting after 30-40 years of corporate life. What’s not to like about no schedule, no agenda, no alarm clock, and being one with the voice-activated remote.

That euphoria wears out pretty quickly. And then it’s “what’s next?” or “what now?”

My suggestion: Get AMPed!

Will there ever be a better time in our lives to experience the autonomy that was absent in the control-and-command corporate world?

Will there ever be a better time in our lives to be able to achieve a significant level of mastery over something we have longed to do most of our lives?

Will there ever be a better time in our lives to be able to discover a purpose of our own rather than one dictated to us?

The formula looks like this:

AMP = (Doing what I want, when I want, where I want) + (Doing what I’m really good, what I really like to do) + (Making something/somebody/someplace better) 

Simple. Fulfilling. And likely to add more life to our years as well as more years to our lives.

And a chance to be your three-year-old self, active and engaged.

We appreciate your feedback. Have a thought about all this? Scroll down and leave a comment. And thanks for being a reader. If you aren’t on our email list, you can join up, at no cost, at www.makeagingwork.com.  See you next week.

 

21 replies
  1. Seth says:

    AMP sounds like another formulaic buzz concept. Most of us work on autopilot and are highly influenced by those five Cs. Take time for yourself to learn about yourself. Our lives are filled with too much noise. We are reacting. Mastery is an illusion. Life is all about understanding the process. Be grateful for what’s good in your life and become attuned to understanding your purpose.

    Reply
  2. John Clark says:

    It’s sad to hear about how many people dislike their jobs. I worked in an organization that used Gallup and it seems like that actively disengaged group always stays the same. Organizations need to get rid of them to keep them them from dragging everybody else down.

    I must have been lucky since I had some unique skills that I enjoyed using and was always able to employ them. There were times when it was necessary to change jobs, but I never felt there was no alternative to a bad situation. It seemed like every time I needed a change something came along.

    In retirement I still get called to work and have spent less than 6 months not working at all. During the times I’m not working there are plenty of things to do that have purpose

    If people are bored with themselves I wonder if they lack imagination

    Reply
  3. Walter Wilson says:

    I am 65 and not even remotely considering retirement.

    Not that retirement is a bad thing–if, as you have pointed out many times, it is done right. But for me, not in the cards any time soon. I love what I do, even when the daily “flying monkeys” cause me to pull my hair out by the roots. That’s part of the challenge–no guts, no glory. 🙂

    I am giving some thought to a slight pivot in a few years–adding another degree and doing a bit of a pivot to some new stuff–we’ll see.

    I remember as a fresh new 20-something salesman for IBM in the early ’80s walking into a customer employee’s cubical one day. She had a calendar on the wall, and was crossing off the days until she could retire at 65–which for her at the time was 6 years in the future! I remember how depressing that was–for someone to come to work every day and do a job for the purpose of never having to do it again. I swore on the spot that that would never happen to me!

    So I spend my days chasing the odd misbehaving flying monkey–and I am _never_ bored.

    Reply
  4. John Jupin says:

    I retired in 2010 after a career in federal law enforcement. I can honestly say I had the opportunity for AMP. If your a fan of the BOSCH television series and books, I spent little time in my cubicle. Instead I followed the creed: ” Get off your ass and knock on some doors.”

    I still do that now. I don’t play golf. Got recreation as part of my life but not my entire retirement day. You have to move, grow, learn, fail, succeed and reflect. If your not doing that, your just going to end up an angry old person.

    Reply
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    Reply

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