How it works: here are the steps I took

I could sleep at night once I understood what I could spend and how long of a runway I had to find the next career. Most of us have no idea what our financial position is post career and can’t answer questions like “how much do you live on a month”. The first season post-music I felt terrified and adrift, and scared people don’t make good longterm decisions with intention. You can make this plan yourself, I can help you for no cost, or you can pay my brother, a registered investment advisor and retired elite athlete, to help you.

I learned a basic core schedule for life, what to do with the day. A career transition is a fulltime occupation.  We’ve never had to plan out our own day and it is awfully overwhelming. Just as hockey and music have its core schedule and routine on practice days and game/performance days, so too is there a core schedule and daily routine for transition. I will share with you a couple different core schedules that have worked for me, that I suggest you try out and then make it your own later.

Physical, mental, and psychological health assessment with doctors. Most of us are in physical or mental pain and ill-health, and it’s damn hard to move on without resolving this first. We tend to manage this discomfort in unhealthy and harmful ways, and that needs addressing. I needed psychological and medical help to get off my various self-management aids and solve some longterm pain issues. You may have your own medical team, I can happily recommend some I've used if need be. But don't skip this step because you're ok today.

A clear simple to understand and science-based report produced by an industrial psychologist that outlines 3-5 professions we are most likely to succeed at.  I had no idea how to translate my basic skills and interests into something else.  I got the shock of my life when I discovered how they would transfer to another profession.  It allowed me to stop thinking of myself as an old failed pianist in a bathrobe on a Tuesday morning, and start thinking of myself as a young entrepreneur trying to buy a business.  Again, you can solve this yourself or I can introduce you to some I've used and come to trust over the last 15 years.

Strong skills testing identifies what education we need and want to support the next career, and plan when/how to get it.  I went to business night school for financial management, and took Carnegie classes to fix my lack of people skills. These recommendations come from the industrial psychologist who conducts the strong skill inventory assessment.

I found it necessary to identify the purpose of my performance career, beyond the specific goals, and then apply it to identify my next set of goals.  My broader purpose is that “I’m enjoying the adventure of driving myself and those around me towards a new definition of personal excellence, every day”.   Understanding that purpose helped me to realize I had a whole world available to me, not just being really good at knowing how to show up prepared to play Chopin in a tuxedo at 8pm.

We need conversation regularly with someone who’s been there and can help navigate the process. It was so easy for me to fall into the ditch of thinking life was over just because I didn’t have any more concerts.  Talking to other retired performers now working productively and living happily helped me realize I was far from the first, and actually life was just getting started.