People talk a lot about how important it is to have a passion for the work you do, but sometimes even the things you have a passion for can lose some of their attraction over time. If you feel this way perhaps you are starting to consider retirement.
I love my work, but right now the prospect of being on a permanant holiday – the traditional form of retirement – is so very appealing.
Relaxing holiday
I have spent two weeks over Christmas and New Year relaxing and doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, with few constraints. Certainly I spent many hours preparing, cooking and serving food for a few days around Christmas, and that’s hard work but it’s also a labour of love.
I didn’t achieve much but I wasn’t bone idle the whole time. We went boating for several days and that always involves some physical exertion. I swam and did gentle aquarobics two or three times daily, often for up to an hour. It was a beautiful way to spend the time, almost meditative and certainly very relaxing.
What it boils down to is that when I was “on holidays” I could read until late if I felt like it (often), sleep until late if I wanted to (never), eat at all the wrong times (regularly), immerse myself in the pool (consistently), listen to good music (constantly) and almost never feel rushed for time. I loved all that.
Choosing between a traditional retirement and a retirement lifestyle business
Yet I have always protested that I didn’t want to retire from my business until I was well beyond the traditional retirement age. I feel concerned that I would lose my sense of purpose and would no longer be doing the things I love to do.
Perhaps I have been looking at all that from the wrong angle. Perhaps the things I love to do in my working life are an important part of who I am, but the things I love to do in my holidays reflect the essence of me.
So the reality is here and I need to get on with things. It’s a new year with new and ongoing business commitments. It’s a year in which I intended to achieve a great deal.
Am I really considering retirement?
Could it be that I’m just feeling the “post holiday blues” and need to shake myself out of it? Or perhaps I am being given new insights into how people feel when they start to think they’d like to retire. As a career and transition coach for baby boomers I see the irony in my feeling the pain so I can better understand the pain of my clients.
Are you feeling similar thoughts going back to work? And is it making you start to wonder if retirement might not be a bad idea?
My solution
My solution has been to create a hybrid retirement lifestyle – part income producing, part traditional retirement. It’s working for me because I love the mental stimulation, the challenge and the fun of learning new ways of doing things. But I also still enjoying our travel, sailing and generally great lifestyle especially having time to spend with our gorgeous grandchildren. I guess I’m considering retirement, but on my own terms.
The business commitments take up time, of course, but they don’t dominate my life. It’s as if I’ve have taken up a new hobby in our retirement, something like genealogy or writing a book, which many people do. It just happens that my “new hobby” is bringing in an income to enhance the lifestyle. Win-win!
If you are wondering what sort of retirement will suit you best, download our retirement planning guide – Create A Future You Will Love – today!
