But What Now?

The purpose of this post is to begin to explore what transitions are and different views we can apply to the big transition in our lives we call retirement.

Managing the Transitions

Retirement is a big transition. It changes what you do on a day to day basis. It changes how you see yourself and it changes how others see you. Some of these changes may be ones you can anticipate, while others may catch you by surprise.

Depending on individual circumstances, retirement may be something you’ve been planning and looking forward to or not. What is important is the way you view your retirement transition. Do you feel good about retiring and are you looking forward to new challenges and opportunities, or do you see your retirement as something forced upon you and now you are left with a void where your job used to be?

I’ve put together a list of tips to consider as you either stand at threshold of your own retirement transition or are fully immersed in it.

1. Planning - this, to me, may be the most important thing I do before I retire. While I would love to leave my job today, if I did I would deny myself a pension (however small) and the health insurance that I get to take with me when I retire when I am eligible according to the rules of my organization. I am also saving as much as I can now since I know that at the end of the year the paycheck that I am receiving now will be no more (even if temporarily).

2. Give yourself time to just be initially - I may be speaking only for myself, although I don’t think so. As humans we tend to want to fill every void with some new activity, some new decision, a fix or something, anything, to keep us from just being with ourselves as we move from one life phase to another. I remember when I was younger and I was unemployed for a period of time. Looking back on it now, I had enough money and resources to live on, but I stressed about finding a new job to the detriment of being able to just enjoy the time off and let myself be with just not knowing for this short time. Imagine if I had spent each day meditating when I first woke up instead of worrying!

3. Dream - If we don’t dream, we will always be stuck where we are because we won’t have any idea that something else exists. I know for myself that having a job and a routine and living in the same place for many years has somewhat stunted my ability to dream, but it is a skill I am relearning, if you will. I plan on writing a post dedicated to this topic alone because I think it is so important.

4. Visualize! - This comes on the heels of dreaming. When we dream we’re using our imaginations and when we repeatedly visualize our dreams, or more succinctly, specific things we really want in our lives, be they material or otherwise, we are much more likely to get them. See my previous post “Retirement Visualizations and The Secret.”.

5. Play - Probably the most important thing for me to remember is not to spend my days dwelling on any of this. When we find time to play, be it computer games, going out with friends, walking on the beach or going to the movies, all of the desires or questions we’ve planted in our subconscious will percolate on their own without our constant interference. Above all else, we are here to have fun!