Retirement Speeches

One of the most wonderful days of your life is upon you. It is finally time to retire. You have so much to say, so many people to thank, but you're not exactly sure how to fit it all into one short retirement speech.

You want your retirement speech to project meaning, depth, and most importantly reflect who you really are and how you feel. Millions of people are faced with this same dilemma every year. The good news is that there a few basic tips you can use to make your retirement speech one that will make a difference and gain respect amongst your co-workers.

The First 3 Seconds . . .

The very first thing you want to do when giving your retirement speech is to ease your nerves. Most people do this by saying I am nervous or this is hard or a myriad of other methods. Unfortunately, that is not the way to start a memorable retirement speech. The very best thing you can do in the first 3 seconds is to say nothing at all. Simply step to the podium and take a deep breath and exhale.

The next 5 seconds . . .

Once you have taken a deep breathe and eased your nerves you will want to smile. Yes, for the next 5 seconds give your audience a big smile and perhaps a laugh. Not a fake smile and laugh, but one of rejoicing. You must realize that you have truly accomplished something that only happens once in most people's life time so enjoy this moment!

The 8 Second Ride is Over

OK, now you have eased your nerves and eased the tension in the room. A bull rider must stay on their ride for 8 seconds to win the battle. Congratulations -- You have just ridden the bull. Now the rest is easy. If you are disciplined enough to simply enjoy the moment your retirement speech will be a success. One that has meaning and depth just as you imagined it would.

Try this retirement speech advice and you will be amazed at how professional people will think you are. It may seem too simple. What will you say or how will you say it. The truth is - You will never say it all right or get everything in. However, the first few seconds are the ones that most people must judge the speech by. If they like you in the first 8 seconds you can mess up and they will still be moved.

If you need more helpful information on Retirement try visiting a website that specializes in providing helpful tips, advice, and retirement resources to include Retirement Speech

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Turner

For Retirement Quotations and Retirement Sayings See:

THE RETIREMENT QUOTES CAFE

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Retirement is a double-edged sword. You either make it work for you - or it will cut your happiness in half. The more you know about the secrets to a successful retirement, the happier you will be once you retire.

That's why you need:

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This is a sample retirment speech that can be made by a retiring employee

A warm welcome to everyone here tonight who has come to celebrate my retirement.

I want to thank everyone here for attending and for the wonderful retirement gift of the fine set of golf clubs that Thomas presented me with. I am glad that it wasn't the proverbial gold watch. I plan to still attend the annual company golf tournament during my retirement years and put these great golf clubs to use and finally beat Thomas at his game.

Although this is a special occasion for me, I obviously have mixed emotions about it. It's difficult for me to be making this retirement speech and saying goodbye all my colleagues.

Still more in the way of thanks, Thomas, thank you for the copy of How to Retire Happy, wild, and Free, that you provided me along with the set of golf club. Given that I don't have this bookI am looking forward to reading it. three years ago when I was contemplating retirement, I did buy and read Ernie Zelinski's earlier book called The Joy of Not Working.

At that time I stopped working twelve hours a day and started working only eight hours a day, sometimes only six or less, and taking a lot more time off and vacation time. This was great practice for my upcoming retirement years.

In short, I do want to express my gratitude for some of the things that make the people at this company so special - those who have shared in the fun and laughter that all of us have experienced over the years. I am certain that this atmosphere will continue long after I am gone.

I feel that early retirement is an incredible gift. It's a gift that everyone should give themselves if they can. That is why I am retiring at 60 instead of 65 or 70. I am suggesting that each one of you do the same.

There are two retirement quotes that I came across: The first is: "Retirement is when you stop living at work and begin working at living." The second is: "Retirement is also the beginning of life - not the end!" I know, however, that regardless of how much I enjoy retirement, that I will miss everyone in this organization.

Thank you again to everyone for being here tonight.

OTHER RESOURCES FOR RETIREMENT AND FOR MAKING RETIREMENT SPEECHES

PUBLIC SPEAKING: DO IT BADLY - BUT AT LEAST DO IT!

Tim Ferris's Public Speaking - How I Prepare Every Time


Free Retirement Letters on Squidoo


1001 Ways to Enjoy Your Retirement on Squidoo


Retirement Poems on Squidoo


The Best Places to Retire in the World on Squidoo


Funny Speech Topics for Making Fun Speeches at work


GOODBYE LETTERS FOR WORK

People often wonder what to do when the muse fails them and they simply can't come up with an idea for a retirement speech. This is where using a free retirement speech is recommended.

Don't think for a minute that using a free retirement speech is like plagiarizing a speech that someone else wrote. They are more like templates that are in the public domain. When you go searching for a free retirement speech online you will often find that they are more like skeletons of what you would really like to say. There are usually sentences with blanks in them that you can fill in with personal details either about yourself or the person you are planning to toast and roast at a retirement dinner.

These templates are suggestions for your speech structure, not full speeches in their own right. The important thing to remember here, is that a retirement speech is not a piece of writing that can be dashed off quickly like a memo and it is not something that you can get your secretary to do for you. It is an ancient rite of passage that represents your best memories, greatest wishes and fondest wishes for the person bidding your business organization good-bye.

It is a good idea to use these templates as they are much more personal than speeches that have been lifted from somewhere like Bartlett's quotations or a speech writing book. If you hire someone to write a spec hit can also sound stiff and sincere once you are in front of the microphone. That is why it is so important to personalize these speeches as much as you can by gathering anecdote about the retiree.

If you are the retiree then it s a good idea to sit down and meditate for a bit. Take a trip down memory lane to see if you can remember what the happiest time in your career was and be sure to keep the tone positive and appreciative of even the rough times. Keep your sense of humor and don't be afraid to gently rib your colleagues who might be waiting for a story from you about them in your speech. However be sure to make the audience know how appreciative you have been of the good times and how you have learned lessons as a result of the bad times as that kind of upbeat take is a real crowd-pleasing way to update a free retirement speech.

Maxine Allen & John Swanborough own a website which specializes in free retirement speeches to help enhance the confidence and skills required when presenting your retirement speech, as well as funny retirement poems and retirement gifts

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maxine_Allen

For More Retirement Speech Tips See

RETIREMENT SPEECHES ON THE RETIREMENT CAFE

The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked by Ernie J. Zelinski

The Joy of Not Working is all about learning to live every part of your life - employment, unemployment, retirement, and leisure time alike - to the fullest. You too can join the thousands of converts and learn to thrive at both work and play. Illustrated by eye-opening exercises, thought-provoking diagrams, and lively cartoons and quotations, The Joy of Not Working will guide you to enjoy life like never before.

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5. You like books that make you smile and challenge traditional ways of living and thinking.

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Your retirement speech should start with a brief introduction of your first day in the company, your hardest day and your funniest experience (if you have any of those) and then go on to thank all those who were part of your team as well as your bosses for making it possible for you to enjoy working in the company and reach this day.

- from Retirement Speeches at The Health Care Center

The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement - A Free Retirement Gift

My Retirement Gift to the Retired and Soon-to-Be Retired

This E-book in PDF format called The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement is the ultimate collection of retirement quotations and retirement sayings placed in over 40 categories for easy reference. It makes great reading for just about everyone - particularly for the retired and soon-to-be retired.

Of course, quotations can be a great source of knowledge and wisdom. They stimulate creative thought, remind you of cherished experiences, and give you insights you otherwise wouldn't acquire. From a collection amassed over many years, The 237 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement is a wonderful assortment of some of the most unpredictable, ridiculous, outrageous, humorous, motivational, and inspirational quotations about RETIREMENT.

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The Retirement Gifts Cafe

I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams.

The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.

- General Douglas MacArthur, in a retirement speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress

I am going back to Yazoo City and to my old home on a rural free-delivery route. I want to get up again each morning as I hear the roosters crow. I want to pick flowers while the dew is still on them. Then, I want to come back and have my coffee and breakfast. Later on, if I am so fortunate as to have any left in these days, I want to stir myself a toddy whenever I feel that I would like one.

Through the middle of the day I will read books, putter around the place, and talk to my neighbors. At noon I will leisurely eat my dinner. After dinner I will read some more, and then late in the evening, I will eat supper-and notice that I call it supper, this last meal of the day. That is what we call it in Mississippi.

And as night and the time for bed approaches, I will listen to the greatest chorus of voices that man ever heard, music that will charm me and make me ready for repose-the voices of my mocking birds, trilling from the trees. In that way I want to live the rest of my life. And when the end comes, I hope to be carried out of the house by my neighbors and laid to rest among my people.

Now some may say that it is not a very wonderful future - all of this I have mapped out for myself - but I say there is merit in calm retirement.

Right now I feel that it is more a real life than being a Senator of the United States who serves his people by joining in the petty squabbles that occupy so much time of the Senate today. I may have grown cynical from long service, but this is a tendency I do not like, and I sometimes think I'd rather be a dog and bay at the moon than stay in the Senate another six years and listen to it.

Perhaps it is a sign that I ought to retire. For retirement brings repose, and repose allows a kindly judgment of all things. As for me, it [retirement] shall also mean a calm in which to make peace with myself and a season to spend in the quiet of my home and in the friendship of my neighbors.

- Senator John Sharp Williams, farewell retirement speech to his friends, at a retirement dinner organized by the Mississippi Society of Washington, D.C., honoring him shortly before his retirement from the Senate on March 4, 1923.

Retiree George Fulmore, a retirement seminar presentor, recently sent this e-mail to the editor of The Bulletin, a monthly publication of the AARP.

"Once more, this time in the October 2001 issue of the Bulletin, a story about 50-plus workers being laid off fails to include the option for such folks to at least "try" retirement. What does AARP and its publications have against retirement? The word is avoided like the plague.

AARP really needs to look inside itself to find out what the "hang up" is and then tell us about it. Those who read AARP publications and are happily retired are confused by the almost neurotic exclusion
of acknowledging retirement as a healthy, fulfilling option to working for pay until you drop.

Come on AARP, tell us about it. Do you hate
the concept? Do you consider it disgusting? Is it beyond your comprehension? Just what is the problem?

George Fulmore.
Concord, CA."

Blaise Pascal, seventeenth century French scientist and philosopher, reflected on boredom: "Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness."

TV WATCHING

Television entertains and deludes people. It's not very educational, and when it is, people don't watch the programs.

People watch TV without understanding what they are watching. Even if they understand, they seldom absorb anything worthwhile.

"The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television."
- Unknown Wise Person

Research indicates that on the average Americans spend about 40 percent of their free time in front of the TV.

Retirement Quotes and Sayings

Funny Retirement Quotes

Retirement Poems

Funny Retirement Poems

Ideas for Retirement Parties

Retirement Party Ideas

Snappy Retirement Wishes

Retirement Wishes

Unreal Jobs for Retirement

Jobs for Retirement

Retirement Cake Sayings and Party Ideas

Retirement Cake Sayings

Retirement Sentiments

Happy Retirement Sentiments

Retirement Poems

Retirement Poems

Early Retirement

Reasons for Early Retirement

Retirement Jokes

Retirement Humor

Retirement Wishes

Retirement Wishes and Toasts

Retire Rich or NOT!

How Not to Retire Rich

Retirement Quote

Viva la retirement, grab it by the horns and go for it.
- Cheryl Marland

For More Retirement Resources See

RETIREMENT PLANNING ON SQUIDOO