Sorry for my absence, as you all know, there’s a lot going on and the distractions mount up. No matter, here’s what on my mind right now that I wanted to share with you.
I am actually, officially, amazingly, honest to-gosh, retiring from my full-time career this fall, fifty-seven years after I started working my first summer job in 1965! This occurrence will obviously leave a very big hole in my scheduled life, adding up to 8 to 10 hrs a day, or around 45 NEW, UNSCHEDULED, PERSONAL HOURS EVERY SINGLE WEEK TO DO WHATEVER I WANT, WHENEVER I WANT! Plus weekends being added to my unscheduled retired life instead of deducted from my very busy full-time working life! Wow! Utilizing this newly found free time actually sounds more like a daunting task then a relaxing retirement!
Looming retirement almost feels like a weightless weight!? It feels like I need to get busy and focus (the weight) on how best to use all of those upcoming newly inherited personal hours (the weightless). And there, of course, is the rub. It is a required shift from learning how to look at retirement not as an end but rather as a beginning. Not as a measurement of success but as an appreciation of personal freedom. Not as the obligations of parenthood but the celebration of grand parenthood. Not as a paycheck but as a pay-off. The question is, after 55 years of “making a living”, how best do you transition to “living your best life?”
I like a list, so here are two:
FIRST, WHAT NO LONGER SERVES ME
a. Trading time for money
b. Putting work before family
c. Prioritizing work above Joy
d. Choosing to serve obligations instead of searching for opportunities
e. Making commitments before honoring intuition
f. Alarm clocks
g. Driving too fast
h. Ignoring health and vitality
i. Mindlessness over mindfulness
SECOND, WHAT SERVES MY HIGHEST AND BEST GOOD
a. Selfless over selfish
b. Let my actions serve as a role model
c. Seek Satisfaction Through Service
d. Recognize that Conceit is natural and easy while Humility is difficult and acquired
e. Seek no financial reward if it is absent of an equal emotional reward
f. Learn to live on less
g. Be an optimist, ALWAYS
h. Accept that whatever comes my way is exactly what is needed for my highest and best good, and every response is my response-ability alone
i. And very importantly…Love, cherish and respect my spouse above all else. She has sacrificed greatly to make a singular commitment to me
For my entire working life I have always been very entrepreneurial, and worked very hard. Except for my original summer job, I have either been a business owner or an independent contractor. I sacrificed a great deal of time that could have been spent with my wife and children in an exchange for money and possessions. I am proud of what I have accomplished but am aware of the cost. I am really, really looking forward to “retirement”, and being more present. What a gift!