Image courtesy of Jeff Sheldon:https://unsplash.com/ugmonk
You know it’s coming, but inside your torn between the freedom to do what you want, when you want and the feeling that you will lose your identity, your connections, your routine, maybe your soul.
Life after retirement isn’t just about having enough money to live comfortably on. Yes, those first few weeks may seem like a holiday, but pretty soon the reality of a new way of life will start to sink in and it can be hard to feel there’s now no one relying on you to show up, relying on you to offer input into a new and exciting enterprise, you are no longer part of a team. How does that make you feel? The good news is there is something you can do to avoid the “retirement let-down reflex”.
Years ago I had a boss who loved his job as a senior manager in a multi-national he’d worked in for 40 years, having command over a multi-million dollar budget, but 2 years before his retirement, reality was setting in that very soon the only decisions he would be making was where he and his wife would be vacationing in the summer. He had held a high position in the company for so many years it had become his raison d’étre. Now, he sat in front of me looking like a child about to start school for the first time. Excited, scared, worried about what the future held for him and whether he could make the change and still be as happy in life. His fear that he would die of boredom kept him awake at night.
It’s not just senior managers and CEO’s that go through this feeling of total intrepidation, retirement can be a daunting prospect for many of us. We identify with our job, our chosen career, it has after all been our world for more than 40 years, we’ve got used to being wanted, relied upon and when someone takes away our identity, we feel a sense of fear, who are we now? And the thought that we are too old to start again fills us with nervousness and fear.
For this reason, I recommend that retirement planning doesn’t just mean financial planning, but should include a general life plan too (this is almost more important). Without a life plan you could wittle away the rest of your life instead of really enjoying what should be the best years of your life, after all isn’t this what we have all been dreaming about all these years, freedom? Freedom from pressures, freedom to pursue what makes us happy, freedom to enjoy life, even freedom from the 4 o’clock alarm clock, freedom to help and serve.
Think about what you’ve been looking forward to all these years, now you have the chance to do the things you want to do and the time to help others. There is so much you could do with retirement so go out there and make that life plan so you don’t waste a moment of it, unless you want to that it.
Til we meet again
Amanda