Earlier this summer, came the news of the remarkable  “Giving Pledge” taken by 40 billionaires. 

Led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the group pledged to donate half of their wealth to charities. Of course, one reason billionaires have so much to donate to charity in the first place is because they don’t fritter their fortunes away needlessly to the IRS.  They have been well counseled on how to maintain control of their fortunes so that they – not the taxman doing the bidding of Washington politics – determine what causes they will support, what impact they will make, what legacy they will leave to the world. But you don’t need to be a billionaire to leave your “life prints” on society.  What you do need is to define your vision, values and purpose, set your priorities and goals, make a giving plan and then do it.  So says Joe Sturniolo, founder of ROAR, a thought leader on “rethinking retirement,” author, financial counselor and speaker who specializes in wealth transfer.   He works to bring together non-profit organizations such as hospitals and colleges with potential or occasional financial supporters to help them make a lasting impact through planned giving while preserving or growing the their estates.   His goal in this effort:  To raise $1 billion for charities by showing people how to be able give more, be taxed less, and actually increase their estates instead of diminishing them. In a recent workshop called “Disinheriting the IRS,” he said that once people see how easily they can preserve their estates and maximize the impact of their giving, their philanthropic means and their philanthropic motivation are multiplied.   Helping people live more significantly is why Joe started ROAR, to inspire and lead people to use their God-given gifts and passions for the benefit of others, and, in so doing, achieve significance in our lives.  And one dimension of that significance includes being good stewards and sharers of whatever financial gifts come might come our way in the fulfillment of our calling.   You don’t have to be a Bill Gates or a Warren Buffett to do that.  You just need some good financial advice, a logical plan, a giving heart, and a commitment to follow through. 

In ROAR’s approach to finding your calling, one point of focus is on ‘cocooning,’  blocking out quotidien distractions and the voices of others in order to dial in to your own soul. 

Cocooning is necessarily a solo, shrouded enterprise, but does not function if the mind is a blank slate, devoid of clues.  We need to take note of  and reflect on life’s everyday cues as to where our passion - “our lion within” -  is to be found.

In that regard, I came across an article that speaks to heeding the cues of finding one’s purpose.  The article was written by Swiss author and TV host Alain de Botton and appeared in O,  The Oprah Magazine (October 13, 2009).  www.oprah.com/spirit/find-your-true-calling-career-advice

De Botton notes the challenge of finding your calling: “I prefer to borrow from psychologist Abraham Maslow, who said: It isn’t normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.”

But de Botton says that connecting with what you want is not unachieveable, if you are alert to the signs.

“To begin to find a more fulfilling vocation, it is not enough to simply ask yourself what you might like to do. Concerns about money and status long ago extinguished most people’s ability to think authentically about their options. Instead, I would suggest free-associating around clusters of concerns that delight and excite you, without attempting to settle upon anything as rigid as the frame of a career. ”

As ROAR would call it, you start painting the picture of your life with sketches - fragments of the picture.

He continues, “In searching for their aptitudes, people should act like treasure hunters passing over the ground with metal detectors, listening out for beeps of joy. A woman might get her first intimation that her real interest lies in poetry not by hearing a holy voice as she pages through a book of verse but from the thrill she feels as she stands in a parking lot on the edge of town overlooking a misty valley. Or a politician, long before she belongs to any party or has any profound understanding of statecraft, might register a telling signal when successfully healing a rift between two members of her family.”‘

I like that expression: “beeps of  joy.”  So key to finding the treasure - what we want.  Yet so often unheeded.

 Dan Christopherson is a member of the ROAR team and co-author, with ROAR founder Joe Sturniolo, of  The Caterpillar That Roared (2008, Morgan James Publishing, New York).  

I recently came across a blog written by Fred First, an Alabama native, former educator, physical therapist and author who now resides in the bucolic surroundings of Floyd County, Virginia. 

In his 7-2-2010 posting to his blog, www.FragmentsFromFloyd.com, he deals with his misgivings about the advent of his first Social Security check and what its arrival would signify for his future.

And it speaks to the nexus of ROAR — finding or rediscovering your gifts, and employing them in a purposeful way — for the benefit of others.

Here’s an excerpt: 

“I thought my working life had ended forever in 2002. I’d burned out on health care and couldn’t imagine myself back in the classroom again 17 years since I put away my chalk-dusted tie and biology lecture notes. My retirement angst—the sudden loss of self-identity, purpose and structure—happened with some ferocity those first few jobless months that year. It was tough. I started writing it out to make sense of it. And I got the worry and perplexity over with at 54. And to my great surprise thereafter, I re-entered education, teaching for a few semesters at RU and returned part time for five years to a physical therapy clinic who stopped needing me only in the fall of 2009.

“So when that (Social Security) check comes any day now, I will think of it as a kind of grant, a small reinforcement to do what comes from the heart, to use life skills from here on for other purposes than paying the bills, and to live in an older body with a beginner’s mind. “

I encourage you to read the full post.  It’s wonderfully written and speaks to anyone who has ever asked themself, “Is that all there is?”

 Dan Christopherson is a member of the ROAR team 

You know how refreshed you feel when you take time to get away to a seminar or workshop - something that helps you recharge your brain and, possibly, your spirit?  Half the benefit of going is just getting away from the pressures of  work  and, in some cases, family obligations.  The other half is allowing yourself to be exposed to new ideas - to start sketching out how you can gain more fulfillment from your current occupation - perhaps retooling and reinventing what you do - or getting a start on finding and laying claim to your life’s true calling.

You might not know where you are headed, perhaps not be graced with a clear picture of  what you want the future to look like for you.  But you can start sketching that future right now, adding lines, erasing, adding tones and dimensions. In chapter 6 of of  The Caterpillar that Roared, a parable I co-authored with ROAR founder Joe Sturniolo about making the journey toward a more meaningful life,  one of the 13 “lessons learned” that follow each chapter is this:  “All works begin with a sketch. Life’s next adventure is like an empty canvas. You don’t know necessarily what the next brush stroke is going to be but you recognize the final picture when you see it.  Like every work of art, you must begin with a sketch.  Sketches are experiments that help you solidify the final vision of your life.”  

For most of us, our lives are so busy, our financial and family commitments so pressing, that we have very little time or money to consider getting away with our “sketchpad” to cocoon a bit with our thoughts and emotions.   But  a long weekend  at a workshop or even  a church retreat can help build inspiration and give you a start on that sketch.

For those who can afford it, an ideal way to reenergize and refocus is a sabbatical.  A 2009 Towers Watson survey of human resources executives revealed that 53 percent are planning to offer employees voluntary unpaid furloughs or sabbaticals.

Dan Christopherson is a member of the ROAR team 

In the quest to discover or rediscover and pursue one’s true calling, too few people ask themselves, and then thoughtfully and honestly answer, the right questions.

Since financial planning goals and personal fuflfillment goals go hand in hand, ROAR founder Joe Sturniolo was asked by Financial Planning magazine to offer some direction for effective soul-searching :

 SELF ASSESSMENT

Does what you are doing now truly fulfill you? Or do you feel that there is something else you were meant to do with your life?

DEFINE THE DREAM

What gift, passion or dream did you set aside during your childhood, adolescence and college days? Did you have valid, practical reasons for abandoning your original youthful dreams and career aspirations - or were you simply afraid to try? 

 Answering these questions is hard for a lot of people. For some, it’s because they have buried their dreams for so long that they are difficult to unearth.  

MAKE IT MEANINGFUL

What could you do that would employ your talents for the benefit of others? 

Discovering how to use your skills to positively impact the lives of others provides motivation, purpose and fulfillment.  

GUT CHECK

Are you truly willing to get out of your comfort zone and be less than competent while gaining new knowledge and skills? Is your identity so tied to your current occupation that leaving that identity behind would be unthinkable?

 Shifting life’s focus requires you to give up some comforts and entanglements. It also might mean living on less money, giving up some luxuries. Is the trade-off worth it?   

“One thing leads to another” is a phrase that frequently applies to careers. We climb the ladder. We say on track .  And yet sometimes the next logical step in a career leads us farther and farther away from our true calling. 

A mentor of mine once told me, “It’s often the promotion you don’t take that proves to be your best career move.”  And it proved to be true for me - turning down a nice promotion within the large bank I worked for early in my career. It would have taken me out of the communications field and into a job in human resources, with a nice fat raise in pay.  But I turned it down, and I’m glad I did.

Many are prone to stumble when figuring out the next career move.  Blogger Lin Schreiber describes the 3 mistakes she made in pursuing her “encore” career, including failing to follow your heart’s desire. 

It’s worth a read.   http://www.amasyagundem.com/3-most-important-mistakes-to-avoid-before-creating-your-encore-career.html

In an article published in their newsletter in January of this year*, psychotherapist and career counselor Alan Bernstein and management consultant John Trauth, co-founders of the New York-based Center for Innovative Retirement and co-authors of “Your Retirement, Your Way,” equate preparing to set out on a new personal transition to preparing for a hike.

Readying for the journey means we have to consider a range of things that could affect the adventure and the outcome - weather, topography, etc.  But too often, the pair say, ”It is all too human to imagine that, once a course has been set, we  will travel in only one direction: forward.” 

The truth is, we can’t always see over to the next hill, or to knowif we can ford the river just over the ridge.  We are more likely to move in a number of directions, tin ways that don’t necessarily look like “forward.” Backwards, sideways, climbing uphill, stumbling downhill and halted for a breather (or to reconsider the route altogether) are all part of the journey.

Part of this non-linearity owes to the “renewal cycles” posited by Frederic Hudson of the Hudson Institute (and reflected in  ROAR’s transition-oriented approach).  The cycle is this:  starting with comfort in the present, moving to discontent and depression and a sense of loss of direction, then on to “cocooning” (a period of refection and exploring new options), to a period of vibrant pursuit of a new  path and, finally, back to the first stage of comfort - being at peace with your life.

Before you know it, though, the cycle often starts again.  We get bored , feel unchallenged, or want more meaning, and thus the discontent begins to form, as does a grain of sand irritate and eventually spark the creation of a pearl. 

Like the changing of seasons, it is in our DNA to cycle and recycle from comfort to discomfort, to finding, then pursuing and ultimately claiming a new and singularly important dimension to our life’s calling.

As Bernstein and Trauth say, “The major theories of transition are circular and recurring, rather than linear.  This is why it is so important to seek clarity as we pursue  our dreams for the future.  Who are we, and why are we here?  What brings us joy, and calls to timeless intensity?”  

 Dan Christopherson is a member of the ROAR team

 * Vist the website at www.YourRetirementYourWay.com

No.  The headline doesn’t refer to workers in the love business.  And if there were, it would only apply to employment opportunities in Nevada anway.

This is a national story.

 It’s about the coming shortage of people in the U.S. willing to trade higher incomes for fields more often associated with labors of love than attractive salaries. 

Believe it or not, by 2018 we will be facing a national labor shortage.  At least that’s according to a report titled “After the Recovery: Help Needed,” by Barry Bluestone, dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. 

And Bluestone says the sectors that will be struggling most to fill job openings will be education, health care and social services - typically not high-paying fields.

This represents an opportunity for baby boomers who are facing retirement but who are financialy and/or emotionally not ready to be turned out to pasture, says Bluestone.  

Matt Thornhill, president of the Boomer Project research firm, says, “Many baby boomers are interested in quitting the career they had to do to do the career they want to do.” 

Finding the career people want to do was why ROAR was created  - and with baby boomers especially in mind. 

For a full report on what Bluestone and Thornhill have to say, view the April 22 article on FoxBusiness.com at http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/encore-careers-flourish-coming-labor-shortage/

ROAR encourages and helps people to follow their calling, to find and pursue their true purpose, whether in retirement or early adulthood.  It’s never too late in life to  make a career change.  Take it from Saint Paul.Saint Paul began his life as Saul, a man with an intense hatred of Christians. He persecuted them as heretics and particpated in the stoning of Saint Stephen, the first martyr for the Christian faith.Then, on his way to Damascus, Saul was knocked to the ground and blinded by a heavenly light.  He heard the voice of Jesus, asking “Why do you persecute me?”  and instructing him to continue on to Damascus.  Unable to see, his companions led him to Damascus, where a disciple named Ananias placed his hands on Saul, restoring his sight and filling him with the vision of what he was meant to be - a disciple for Jesus, a PR guy for God.

He took the name Paul as a sign of his conversion.  (What PR people like me might call “personal rebranding.”).

He began preaching tirelessly in synagogues that Jesus is the son of God.  His new career and zeal came with a high price.  He endured imprisonment, scourgings and stoning himself.  Most of us are not fortunate to receive such an overt sign from our maker as to what we are called to do.And so we suffer misgivings about whether we are called to do anything at all. Among the most fundamental questions that dwell within many of us are: “What is my purpose?  Or is there any purpose? Does God really have anything special in mind for my life, some special calling I am supposed to pursue?” The answer from Paul is yes. For instance, in the Bible, book of Romans, Paul asserts we all are given special gifts and he exhorts us to do what we were intended to do: “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”  (Romans 12:4-8, New International Version) 

ROAR exists to affirm this message, that we are endowed with special God-given gifts and talents. ROAR points the way to discovering or rediscovering those gifts, and how they can be put to use for the benefit to others in careers, everyday life, and volunteerism.

Not many of us will achieve sainthood for taking the time to discern and then follow our calling.  But canonization is for those who have died.  Doing what you  were meant to do is what living is for.  

Charitable giving fell in 2008 by the largest percentage in five decades, according to a  study published in 2009 by the Giving USA Foundation and as reported by The New York Times. The 2009 statistics are not in yet, but they are not promising, either. 

ROAR adherents seek to make a meaningful contribution through their special skills and talents.  Quite often, people who break through their borders and embark on their true purpose are - as a byproduct - well rewarded materially, yet through inertia and/or ignorance fail to share their good fortune with the institutions that helped them on the way up.  The universities, learning foundations and other institutions that help ROARers achieve their success, are fading financially as the economy takes its toll.  Funding for higher education is under siege.

Planned giving programs have been around for along time, but many who are financially secure and successful fail to consider the benefits - including tax and estate benefits. 

And such planned giving programs are not just for the rich and can be undertaken with relatively little pain.      

In this time of new year’s resolutions, why not resolve to give back on a planned giving basis to the institutions that helped you develop and live your passions or whose causes align with your interests and values?