[2024-07-19] Transitioning to life after work
I had lunch with a friend today. Like many of my former colleagues, she is on the cusp of retirement. We talked about the challenges that a lot of people experience when transitioning to life after work. She spoke of one friend who is hesitating to retire because he doesn't know what he'll do with his time. She said she advised him to take some time during his upcoming vacation to lift his head up from his busy job and look around at what else there is to see.
Intrigued by this topic, I googled the subject later in the day and came across this article: What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do In Retirement. Writing in Forbes magazine, retirement coach Nancy Collamer says that the first step in a successful retirement transition is self-reflection, echoing my friend's advice. It's easier to make decisions about retirement once you've gained clarity on what's important to you, writes Collamer. She suggests four questions:
- What do you want to learn about?
- When do you feel most useful and valued?
- What have you been waiting to do?
- Do you want to work or volunteer in semi-retirement?
For each question, I've added more detailed prompts based on my experience in retirement and my observation of others who have successfully navigated the transition.
1. What do you want to learn?
- Have you always wanted to learn something new (e.g., a language, an instrument, a cooking style)?
- What subjects interested you as a kid that you would like to return to (e.g., music, astronomy, model trains)?
- What could you teach someone else and, in the process, learn more about yourself (e.g., history, new technology, starting and running a small business)?
2. When do you feel most useful and valued?
- What aspects of your job did you love and would like to continue in retirement (e.g., interacting with people, doing research, proposing solutions)?
- Could you mentor or coach others in an area in which you have expertise (e.g., leadership, sports, communication)?
- Does serving others make you feel useful and valued (e.g., tutoring a young person, making improvements in a community, serving on the board of directors of a charity)?
3. What have you been wanting to do?
- Is there someone you want to spend more time with (e.g., an aging parent, an adult child, grandchildren)?
- What did you have to give up while working full-time that you could pursue in retirement (e.g., exercise, travel, friendships)?
- What completely new area of endeavour has always piqued your interest (e.g., your family history, painting, gardening)?
4. Do you want to work or volunteer in semi-retirement?
- What individuals or groups energize you when you spend time with them (e.g., children, seniors, musicians)?
- What work-related activities do you most enjoy (e.g., editing, advising, creating)?
- What work or volunteer opportunity most excites you (e.g., teaching people to read, writing about your culture, caring for dogs)?
Do you have a buddy who is already retired or, like you, also easing into retirement with whom you could try new things (e.g., taking a class, picking up a new hobby, embarking on a novel sport)?
Collamer advises readers to go slowly: "resist taking on too much, too quickly." I heard this frequently when I retired and largely followed the advice. Similarly, my friend told me at lunch today that she keeps a list of yeses and noes—things she has said yes to and things she has said no to—which helps her to make decisions about which invitations to accept and which invitations to decline. Her comment reminded me of the to-do and to-don't lists I created in my last job to gain clarity on tasks I should be doing and tasks that I should delegate to others.
Collamer concludes her piece by referencing the work of William Bridges, an authority on transitions. She writes: "all transitions are composed of an ending, a neutral zone and a new beginning." It might be helpful, as part of one's self-reflection, to talk with people who have moved beyond the ending and neutral zone to the new beginning. They could help the soon-to-retire see what else is out there.
