About the book

I am writing a new book, called Flourish as you Age. It’s for people 50 plus who are wondering about retirement, actively planning their next stage with or without work – or who have found themselves in their 60s or 70s and are finding it harder going than they expected. It’s for people who sense that the best may lie ahead, but aren’t sure how to get there.

The dictionary says that ‘to flourish’ means ‘to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly congenial environment’. This is about plants, of course, but people also need to flourish.

And as older people we flourish when three things come together:

• enough health and material security to have real options,
• environments that make it possible to do what matters to us, and
• psychological and social conditions that support meaning, agency, and connection.

These sound pretty specific and maybe feel hard to reach, but there is so much you can actually do to create a flourishing life, whatever your current circumstances – and that’s what my new book is all about.

(And the second meaning of ‘flourish’ is ‘a bold or extravagant gesture or action, made especially to attract attention’ – and I think it is time that older Australians developed the habit of doing that more often, too.)

Now we are living longer and healthier lives, we may have 30 good years or even more between ‘retirement’ and the end of life, so the old ideas that our grandparents followed just don’t fit any more. And even if you could afford it, 30 years of bingo and golf would surely only appeal to a very diehard minority.

It’s a bit of a journey without maps, a chance to create new stages, to reinvent retirement and make our own choices. We are a generation who who see the world has changed and demand new and clever solutions to meet our needs. This is quite exciting but also somewhat scary, so this book will offer a map and a helping hand to forge a new path.

Retirement is a social construct and if it is no longer fit for purpose, we can change it.

This new stage could easily be your best and happiest time, as it is for many of us, but only if you are curious enough to explore some new possibilities. Those with a sense of meaning or purpose are likely to live healthier, happier and longer lives, so there’s a real incentive to think through what you want.

I am excited to be working on this new book. If you want some tips in the meantime, check out my free resources, sign up for my newsletter or contact me to chat about some coaching or my upcoming workshops.