“Retirement is the withdrawal from one’s position or occupation or from one’s active working life.[1] “
Do you agree with Wikipedia’s definition? By definition and experience, retirement can be a small to huge shift in habits and mindset. Because so many of us identify who we are through the lens of what we do, retirement needs insightful planning and candid discussion.
Personally, I take exception to the word “withdrawal”. I see re-tirement as a huge opportunity to take advantage of new-found time to do the things that feed our voracious appetite to learn and contribute to our family, community and planet.
My wife and I have every intention of being more active and to continue to be engaged in what we enjoy most as we begin to enter the next chapter of our life.
Together we have started to set aside planning and dreaming time to explore our needs (which reflect our different personalities and life experiences) and co-develop a list of activities that will make becoming bored (which is a primal fear for many people entering into or already on the other side of retirement) a remote possibility. Our lengthy list includes – travelling, volunteering, hiking, photography, learning languages, cooking, learning a musical instrument/singing, spending more time with our kids and friends, golfing (better still, learning how to be a decent golfer), going to plays, concerts and sporting events… (deep breath) and so much more. The list is endless.
We are increasingly very conscious that conquering this list is contingent on sustaining good physical and mental health for as long as we are blessed to have full mobility.
“If you were to retire tomorrow, what would you do? How would you replace the time you currently spend working with something equally if not more fulfilling?
In case, you are challenged to come up with your own ideas, here are two articles that identify a host of possibilities.
And here’s an article that will be of interest in terms of recommended some of the ‘Do Not’s for retiring
https://seniors.lovetoknow.com/senior-life/10-things-not-do-when-you-retire
Happy next chapter!
Colin
How to use your new-found time to do things of importance to you is one of the aspects covered in the workshop that opens the door to retirement readiness coaching. If this is of interest to you, let’s talk.
