My Thinking about Retirement needed an adjustment!
About 12 years ago (at age 55), I created, in my mind, a picture of what it would be like to stop working – commonly referred to as “retirement”. I convinced myself that I would find great pleasure in not having to get up early, commute long distances and, as a result, would have more time for relaxation and doing whatever I wanted. The vision of what my days would be like, was a source of concern as I realized that the activities’ I thought about would occupy so little of my time, and I might become bored and irrelevant. I needed to think this through much more thoroughly. So, while I was still working, I decided to slow down and give myself some space to understand how I really wanted to spend my “time”. After ~6 months, I started a “phased approach” toward my transition, being comfortable that I could always stop and reverse at any point.
A Phased Retirement /Life Transition
I asked my management if I could adjust my current work week by not having to be present in the traditional office setting 5 days a week – I would telecommute 1 day and during the summer I would experiment a little by taking one day a week off. I understood that not everyone can do this and neither did I, until I asked. This adjustment gave me the mental space to reflect and really think about how I wanted to spend my time, while getting me energized and engaged. It was a true turning point and re-enforced the power of reflection.
I started reading books, speaking to people who had recently retired and others who were thinking about the same thing I was: "what's next?" A personal assessment about how ready I was for retirement vs. my expectations of this next stage really opened my mind as to what constituted the parts of a happy retirement. For me, it was not about stopping something, but rather about pursuing fulfillment in multiple ways that I had not considered.
Moving off the Career Treadmill to the Next Phase
After a 33-year main career and a lot of planning (both financially and non-financially) as well as buy-in from family, I decided (at age 58) that I was ready to get off that main career “treadmill”.
During this time, I recall advice from a recent retiree: “Be careful about stepping off the career treadmill too quickly as we have become so used to that fast pace – it will be an adjustment".
Replacing, in part, what I was leaving behind from work became important to me. Also, my personal readiness assessment helped me understand that the "identity" my job gave me was important to me. I was not surprised – as many of my friends/colleagues experienced the same thing.
My Retirement Journey..
My initial thinking about retirement needed an adjustment. I had a lot of things to work on including how work, family, health all “fit” into my life. As to work - it had to be productive and fulfilling work that I would enjoy.
Since that day, the past 8 years have been exciting and fulfilling on multiple fronts and I have evolved as a person. How so?
