Best time to plan for retirement?

    Plan for life, plan for retirement when things are going well and nothing is changing!

Apparently, our judgments and our decisions are influenced by our emotions.  If we are happy, we view the world through rose-colored glasses. If we are sad, we look at the world with hazy gray lenses. Why? Research shows that individuals have difficulty envisioning a future that is different from what they are presently feeling. When life throws a curve and we get laid off or have an accident, things seem pretty bleak. It’s difficult to imagine the dreams we once had, never mind actually think that they could come true.

So what does this mean for our lives? Think of what you want to be “when you grow up” or where you want to live when things are good. For it is only then that you can foresee multiple paths to very attainable dreams, such as starting a new career, moving to the mountains, or publishing your first book. Afifi & Morse (2009) note how negative moods narrow our focus and trigger more careful processing of information. When we are in a bad mood, we just can’t see the forest through the trees; even if we could we would get ourselves stuck in such a “what if” or “how could” cycle that we would never even take one step forward.

In addition, we rely on our current affective states to anchor our perceptions of others’ emotional states (Afifi & Morse, 2009). In other words, we have a hard time believing that others are in different moods than we are. If we are married, considerable conflict can occur when one person is filled with positive emotions and the other negative. One spouse is ready to make plans, live out dreams, while the other is stuck and uncertain how to move forward. A way to avoid this is to lay out steps for a new phase of life when the current one is going well for both of you. Don’t wait until change happens … your mind and heart just might not be ready for it.

This entry was posted on 21. May 2010 at 00:44 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.