Develop a Personal Assessment Sheet.  This will contain your natural talents or gifts, your skills, and your interests.  List everything you can think of without judging if you like it or not.  We’ll break the list down later.

Make 3 columns on a sheet of paper.

Start with your natural talents or gifts. In the first column list everything that you are naturally good at.  Those things that come easily, that don’t require any thought.  These are usually things other people comment on by saying “you’re really good at that”.  Some of my talents or gifts are coaching, counseling, motivating, listening, reading, solving puzzles, and making people laugh.

In the second column, make a list of all your skills. Skills are those things that can be taught and learned.  They may be talents that have been enhanced by study or practice.  Some of my skills are writing, speaking to large groups, cooking, planning and scheduling projects, swimming, internet marketing and repairing small appliances.

Finally, make a list of things that interest you. You may or may not know anything about the subject, but something about it draws your interest.  For example, I’m interested in personal development, travel, all things Irish, sailing, gardening, island living, gourmet food and wine, and good mystery books.

When you have completed your lists, go back over them and circle the top 3-4 items in each column that you really enjoy. The ones that make you smile, that you would be happy doing or being involved with everyday.

Do you see any trends with the items you circled?

Do they, or can they, relate to each other in any way?

How might you integrate them into your life right now?

Do you see how they might be part of your next career?

This is part of a complete step-by-step military retirement checklist. I’ll be posting weekly action steps here, so please subscribe over in the right-hand column so you’re sure to get each update.

When I decided to retire after 26 years in the Navy, I found myself overwhelmed by two things:

1.  Too much information on how to make a military transition, and
2.  Not enough information on how to make the transition into military retirement.

One, there is an abundance of information and resources available for folks retiring from the military and entering civilian life.  You can find advice on how to clarify your skills and talents, write a resume, survive an interview, and network like a pro.  The Transition Assistance Program (TAP) coordinators make every effort to provide valuable information on what you need to do and what your timeline should be to do it in.  There are self-help and career transition books, career and personality assessments, headhunters, and hundreds of websites loaded with information.

While this is all very valuable, I discovered I didn’t know where to start and couldn’t find anyone to tell me.  Some would say “Start with your resume”.  Okay, but I don’t know what I want to do.  Others would suggest I take some personality assessments.  I did.  And discovered that I was perfectly suited to do what I was doing in the military.  So why wasn’t I happy doing it anymore?  Did I really want to pursue my second career in the same field?  (By the way, you can take these assessments at different times in your life and get different answers.)

Which brings me to number two, not enough information on how to make a military transition. I felt like I was sitting in the middle of a large pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces.  I had numerous skills, tons of experience and an abundance of enthusiasm.  I needed help putting it all together and making sense of it.  All I needed was the first few edge pieces of my puzzle to fit together and the rest of the picture would fall into place.

I realized that the first piece missing from the puzzle of information was a checklist. My military training had taught me to always read the book, look at the manual, use the step-by-step checklist.  Don’t rely on your memory or try to reinvent the wheel.  People got hurt and equipment was damaged when we did that!

I’m not trying to reinvent the transition process here.  There’s really no new information.  Rather, I offer you the missing piece.

I’m offering you the step-by-step checklist so you don’t miss anything.

(I’ll be posting weekly action steps here, so please subscribe over in the right-hand column so you’re sure to get each update.)

Panic, doubt and fear all stem from a lack of knowledge, the unknown.  Not knowing what to do, what will happen next or even how to begin.  I have combined everything you have to do for the Navy before you retire with the personal things you want to think about and explore before you actually leave.

My desire is to help you find the edge pieces to start putting together your own puzzle. What I wish for you is to have an effortless transition, to enjoy the process, and to create a civilian lifestyle that brings you constant joy and deep satisfaction.  God bless you on your journey.