Retirement Works!
Retirement Works!
Baby Boomers are refusing to be called ‘retired’. When I asked Brad how he liked retirement he asserted, “I’m not retired! I’m realigned.” Brad was making the point that just because he was no longer drawing a paycheck as a social worker, he was still productive and engaged in meaningful work. In other words, he still had value. Similarly, Sue referred to her new life direction as ‘repotting’ rather than ‘retiring’ when at the age of 55 she went from college teaching to enroll in a veterinary technician degree program. At a time when she could have enjoyed her pension and lifetime health benefits from her former career, Sue chose to continuing working and learning, but in a new field of interest.
Sue’s story is not much different from most of the people I interviewed for my upcoming book, The Courage to Retire: How to Take the Fear Out of the Other Side of Work. In fact, although I set out to write a book on retirement and I ended up writing a book about always working. I couldn’t ignore the messages I repeatedly heard from Baby Boomers, such as work provides a sense of purpose and meaning, a place to go, and a community of friends. This message is not much different from what Galen, a philosopher and physician said back in the second century, “Employment is nature’s physician and is essential to human happiness”. The same message can be found in Seinfeld’s ‘Bee Movie’. The bees were happiest when they were working. Although they had the option of lazing around all day, they were thrilled when they had the opportunity to return to work.
That’s it! Work is the answer to retirement! The way to take the fear out of retirement is to work. Likewise, the way to add meaning and value to our lives in retirement is to work. It may not be work as you know it now, but work as you would like to create it. Just as Sue seamlessly transitioned from being a full-time college professor to a part-time student, some type of work provides the structure and purpose we all need, especially at a stage when we have more available time than we have had for most of our lives.
When I told a friend that I always wanted to have meaningful work in my life, her response was, “and only meaningful work”. Point well made. The key to working in retirement is to create the type of work that you love, perhaps something that you always wanted to do until life took you in another direction. This is what Lisa made herself available to when she retired from a college administrator position that she held for 27 years. She was 57 years old or close enough to that ‘certain age’ that justifies retirement. However, one year later she was working 30 hours/week for a non-profit organization and loving every minute of it. When another friend told me about Lisa’s new position, she said Lisa wasn’t retired anymore. I challenged her statement. In my view, Lisa is still ‘retired’. The new definition of retirement is to be available to what we want to create in our lives. It’s not about what we are leaving behind as much as what we are moving towards. This is how Baby Boomers will redefine retirement. By ‘retiring’ Lisa has made herself available to a new line of work that is engaging her skills and interests. In Lisa’s words, “I feel like I have re-invented myself in a second life!” Brad, Sue and Lisa’s stories show us that the answer to a happy retirement is to always have some time of meaningful work in our lives. This is how retirement works!
To request Patrice’s 10 Tips to Creating Meaningful Work in Retirement send an email to: mergingworkandretirement@yahoo.com
Patrice Jenkins is a frequent speaker and workshop leader on career and retirement transitions. To learn more about her work go to: http://patricejenkins.com/ or <a rel=”nofollow” target=”_new” href=”http://barbarasher.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=3