But What Now?

First of all I have to come clean about neglecting this site for so long. I’ve been way busy. More busy than I’d like to be. In fact, my job, that I only have to report to for the next 8 months, has been a major distraction from what I’d rather be doing.

Ok, hopefully none of my bosses (too many bosses) read this blog. I kind of doubt it, but if they do I guess I may hear about it now. That out of the way, let’s get onto what will I miss when I retire, the reason for writing this post.

I’ve been thinking about this question since picking up Don’t Retire, Rewire! by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. It wasn’t a question I had been thinking about because I’ve been more focused on just wanting to leave. The truth is that there are some things that I will miss about my job.

1. I’ll miss technical problem solving. I love a good technical mystery and I really enjoy figuring out how to fix what’s wrong.
2. I may miss being a team leader. When my team was in full swing and fully operational I really enjoyed the camaraderie and mutual respect we shared while building a successful enterprise system.
3. I’ve enjoyed the trainings and conferences and will probably miss them too.

Those are big deals. The good news for me is that I know that I’ll experience all of them in new pursuits after this job is over. I know that it is time to leave this position. I’ve done all that I can and I’m ready for a new challenge. The organizational landscape has changed so much in just the past few months that I have already had the opportunity to let go of number 2 on my list, and that feels really good to me now.

And for even more good news, I am “rewiring” before I retire. I’m learning many new skills and meeting lots of very interesting people, some of whom are becoming friends. I envision lots of new trainings and conferences in my future that I’ll be attending. Probably more than I do now, in fact.

As far as number 1 is concerned, I’m fairly certain there will always be technical challenges and I’ll continue to hone my troubleshooting skills. I doubt that I will ever be an enterprise systems administrator again, although I don’t know that for sure right now.

I do know that when I retire from my current job, I’ll still need to earn some money and I know that I’ll have plenty of choices in how I do that. The closer I get to leaving this job, the more excited I am becoming thinking about all of the possibilities awaiting me.

What will you miss when you retire or what are you missing now about what you used to do? Is retirement what you thought it would be?