The Best-Half
The Best-Half Newsletter

"There is one prerequisite to managing the second half of your life:
You must begin doing so long before you enter it." Peter Drucker

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National Post article
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December 2007
Greetings
and Happy Holidays

I hope your shopping is going well. I have a few challenges to overcome but I am sure it will all work out fine!

Recently we have had the honour of coaching a group of students at Wilfred Laurier University using Kolbe and co-active coaching. This has been a very personally rewarding experience to be able to reaffirm choices made by these young adults and to be able to provide positive reinforcement and guidance about making future choices either career, academic or even personal. From all indications the job market is still a highly competitive environment. But more importantly this coaching gives them a boost in confidence while starting out in the world.

Many leading companies like Xerox, State Farm and Microsoft are using Kolbe as a means of assessment for achieving the right fit for employees and the organization. We are using Kolbe with our clients in team work, transition planning, recruitment and of course Best-Half.

If you know a young adult that you think would benefit from having a Kolbe Assessment and  2 hours of  debrief/coaching, give me a call or send an email. We can even provide a card and a certificate to put under the tree. The investment is $500.00. The results last for a lifetime.

Cheers

Gord

PS Welcome to the many new readers in response to the article below.
Article in National Post says:I'm the retirement missionary!

 


The best 40 years of
your life?

... You don't know the half of it

William Hanley, Financial Post  Published: Saturday, December 01, 2007

Gordon Neufeld, the "retirement missionary" is on the phone, quietly spreading the gospel according to The Best-Half, which he describes as a "lifestyle planning process for individuals and couples" and which he founded almost six years ago as Boomers began to head into the uncertain land of retirement and a new industry grew to minister to their needs and wants.

"The Best-Half is about planning and enjoying the second or best-half of your life," he says. "We want to help give you a clear picture of how you want to spend the next 20,
30 or 40 years. The thing that's really central to people in developing a plan is for them to be really clear what they want their legacy to be."

Neufeld, who is 55, and whose wife, Marilyn, is an executive coach who's also involved in The Best-Half programs, seems a little self-conscious about being the
"retirement missionary," saying it with a self-deprecating chuckle. OK. How about the retirement go-to-guy?

Individuals and corporations have been going to Neufeld in increasing numbers in the past five years as The Best-Half gains traction through a Web site (www.best-half.com), a book
(The Best-Half: Planning for and Enjoying the Second or Best-Half of Your Life) and word-of-mouth.

Changing life in mid-life, he says, is often about untapped potential. "People don't really know what the possibilities can be. People don't know how to start a dialogue about
what they're going to do in the future, either with a partner or an employer."

Neufeld took his own advice early, selling his communications and public relations business to found The Best-Half and embark on a second-half adventure. It's his third career, he says, following 13 years building the communications company and 15 years in the
business side of the arts, most notably with the Edmonton Symphony.

And while orchestrating a harmonious beginning to people's second halves is a business for Neufeld, he says money is rarely a big issue with the clients he counsels.
"It's what to do with the money. In the workshops and in the coaching, money almost never comes up. We're not financial planners, we don't work with financial planners and so we don't get into that part of it."

Money, of course, is probably not a problem for people willing to pay The Best-Half about $3,500 for one-on-one coaching sessions over six months to a year, or for companies paying $2,000 per person for two-day group sessions plus coaching time. And those are small sums
in the general scheme of making possible life-changing decisions about what are likely to be longer lives in retirement.

How they will be remembered in the world looms large for most of The Best-Half clients, Neufeld says. Yet "legacy" is a daunting word. "But you break it down and explain that you don't have to be someone who changes the world. You can be someone who donates your business's library to Junior Achievement or you can write a book about your life history for your
grandchildren."

When I first heard about The Best-Half program, two questions came to mind: Isn't "half " of life a bit of a stretch after retirement? And isn't calling it the "best" also a stretch?

Given the choice, most of us would rather be younger than older. So, is this just a strong, intriguing marketing slogan?

First, as Neufeld says, 100 years of age isn't what it used to be and many Boomer retirements could easily stretch to 30 years and beyond. "To enjoy retirement the best
way possible requires a certain level of certainty about the future. In order to have certainty, you have to have a plan." Second, he says, it's important to embrace older age.

For people like me, who grudgingly coexist with aging, embracing it is impossible. But I do realize that being optimistic about the future is easier on the body and the soul than being pessimistic.

So, The Best-Half is not a stretch. And Neufeld seems a good choice for people looking for possibilities, legacies and how to enjoy that looming long stretch.

He says The Best-Half workbook is a good way to get started on the process, offering readers 50 options as to what the future might hold and giving them an opportunity to crystallize their thoughts in writing.

"But retirement is not an individual process. It's not a solitary activity. It needs to have feedback, reflection, input from a partner, a spouse, an employer."

And, possibly, the retirement missionary, Gordon Neufeld. He says: "It's really about personal fulfillment in life and not necessarily about how you're going to fill the day --but how you're going to fill the day in a fulfilling way, perhaps for 30 years."

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Past Issues of the Best-Half Newsletter

You can now read past issues of the Best-Half newsletter on our website: www.best-half.com!
The Best-Half puts people  in touch with what really matters to them at any stage of their career and shows them how to find purpose, new meaning and engagement in both their work and home life. - hint: it's all about legacy and possibility! For employers the Best-Half establishes a dialogue between the employee and the organization allowing for effective medium and long range resource planning and succession planning throughout the entire spectrum of an individual's career.

Call us if you want to help your people plan for the future. It's going to be here before you know it (the future that is...)
 
Sincerely,
 

Gordon Neufeld
The Best-Half