Speechwriting can seem like a mysterious process, particularly when you are trying to brainstorm ideas for a retirement speech you need to give when a colleague retires. However, with a few tips, you can make the brainstorming process much simpler and more effective. What should you know about the process? What are your vital considerations in learning how to write a retirement speech?

Ideas Come First

Many people make the mistake of trying to write a retirement speech first. However, this is putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. You need to drum up some retirement speech ideas first, before you start drafting the speech, itself. Collect as many ideas as you can, write them down and then weed out those that you don’t want to use in the speech.

Start Your Retirement Speech Now!

Procrastination is a terrible thing when it comes to writing retirement speeches. Rather than waiting to write down your ideas when you get home, or when you have a quiet moment in your office, do it now. When you wait to put your ideas down on paper, it’s quite likely that you’ll forget them. Take notes during the day. In fact, if you have to, carry a notepad and pen with you, so that you can write down any retirement speech ideas when they occur, rather than trusting that you will remember them at some later time.

Perfection Takes Time

You obviously want your retirement speech to be perfect. However, it’s likely that you don’t feel up to that particular challenge, and will put writing it off until later. Don’t do this. Write a good speech now and then perfect it later. As Voltaire said, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Get good content and ideas down now and then go back and perfect everything later.

The Rule of Threes

The rule of threes can be an invaluable tool to use when writing a retirement speech. However, it can also be a powerful inspirational tool, as well. Choose the three words that you feel best personify the retiree and write them down. You can now use those words to create anecdotes that illustrate the qualities of your colleague.

Using the above-listed tips will help ensure that your retirement speech brainstorming session is as productive as possible, and you will find that your progress is better than you might think.