Retirement at age 65 is an artificial finish line that no longer fits our time.

More than 10 years ago, Peter broke the rules of conversation about retirement with his groundbreaking New Retirement Story. He changed the story about retirement from one focused solely on money to one focused on creating a life and work you love and never want to retire from.

This seminar will discuss the confluence of four modern trends that herald the end of retirement thinking as we know it:

1. The evolving pursuit of fulfillment in our times.
2. The end of the paternalistic employer.
3. The advent of dismantling ageism.
4. Distribution-driven Armageddon for financial services.

Growing old with lots of money is no longer the goal. Dying rich can’t compete with living rich, and making a living doesn’t measure up to making a life. When the idea of retirement was born, people traded physical capital for a paycheck—and it was a practical necessity for people to retire. As a knowledge-based economy, intellectual capital, experiential capital, and relational capital are traded for a paycheck, leaving only one question to answer regarding the appropriate time to retire: What is the expiration date on my intellectual capital and on my experience? What those people still working in their 70s and even 80s will tell you is that they would be dead if they had not continued to engage their intellectual faculties.

Participants will understand the characteristics of the new story:

1. Passion: If you don’t use you your body or your brain in your creative life and work, you lose them.
2. Purpose: Money can fund purpose, but it cannot create purpose.
3. Portfolio: There needs to be a balance between vacation and vocation.
4. Power:  A powerful story they tell themselves which gives them every day the energy to embark on physical, intellectual, and entrepreneurial adventures. Which are the hallmarks of those who continue to thrive as they age.

Peter will help seminar members find answers to the following questions:

1. How will you spend your time? You have 168 hours a week; how will you make those hours meaningful?
2. How will you invest yourself? How will you parlay what you know, what you’ve experienced, and who you are into the next phase of your life?

Read on for a detailed breakdown of The New Retirement Story

What Can I Expect?

Journey Outline

PART I OLD RETIREMENT MYTHS

• Times are Changing
• Old Messages, New Realities
• Illusions, Desillusions & Hype
• The Artificial Finish Line
• Retiring Old Stories about Retirement
• The Fatal Flaw
• Not My Parent’s Retirement
• 65 is old
• Retirement is Only about Money
• To Retire = Not Working
• A Life of Ease is the Ultimate Retirement Goal
• Remove Artificial Finish Lines

PART II THE NEW RETIREMENT STORY

• Re-inventing Retirement – New Pathways
• The Real Meaning of Work
• Brain at Work
• Testdrive Your Dreamjob
• Invest in Who You Are
• Collecting a Play Check
• Bridging the Gap between Means and Meaning
• The Seven Intangibles
• Return on Life
• Your Portfolio Life
• The Money/Life Puzzle
• Collecting Income for Life
• Maslow meets Money (Safety Money, Freedom Money, Money to Give, Dream Money)
• The Financial Freedom to Have a Creative Life

PART III.  YOUR NEW STORY

• The Premise of your Story. The Purpose of your Life and Art
• The words on your tombstone
• Your ultimate mission, out loud
• Your Story about Working Longer
• Your Story about Living Longer
• The Seven Great Plots
• The Twelve Archetypal Heroines
• The One Great Story
• Purpose is Never Forgettable
• Questioning the Premise
• Lining up
• Flawed Alignment, Tragic Ending
• The Three Rules in Storytelling
• Write Your New Story
• Turning your story into action
• The Story Effect
• Story Ritualizing
• The Storyteller and the art of story
• The Power of Your Story
• Storyboarding

PART IV LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER

• Staying in the Zone
• Trust the Force
• The Power of Flow
• From Success to Purpose
• Meaningful Pursuits
• Your Next 100.000 Miles
• From Aging to S- Aging

About Peter de Kuster

Peter de Kuster is the founder of The Heroine’s Journey & Hero’s Journey project,  a storyteller which helps professionals to create careers and lives based on whatever story is most integral to their lives and careers (values, traits, skills and experiences). Peter’s approach combines in-depth storytelling and marketing expertise, and for over 20 years clients have found it effective with a wide range of creative business issues.

Peter is writer of the series The Heroine’s Journey and Hero’s Journey books, he has an MBA in Marketing,  MBA in Financial Economics and graduated at university in Sociology and Communication Sciences.

Almost ten years after launching the Hero’s & Heroine’s journey project Peter de Kuster remains an irreverent, forceful voice—inspiring people to follow their passion, create their own legend and change the face of business.

A Peter de Kuster keynote speech introduces audiences to important concepts that engage their intellect and challenge their thinking about business storytelling and their client’s story. Peter de Kuster has a rich and highly developed stage presence that complements and enhances his storytelling ideas and frameworks.

• Speeches typically run 60-90 minutes but can be adjusted to client needs
• Each presentation is highly customized and reflects the industry and priorities of the client
• Exploratory conversations with key client executives prior to the speech, along with research into the company and its industry, help tailor content
• Peter offers his thinking on the storytelling subject area and share the insightful exemplars that best suit the audience
• Informal Q&A sessions supplementing the speech also help promote greater interaction and understanding.

All speech topics can also be adapted to either full or half-day breakout sessions or workshops with facilitated individual and group exercises. With a generous array of formats and topics, a custom experience reflecting your business needs is right within your grasp.

To learn more about having Peter speak at your event or to contact us at herojourneyquestionnaires@gmail.com