Rethinking Retirement: Why the Word Doesn't Fit Anymore

For some reason, the word "retirement" has always been problematic to me. Just a niggle in the back of my mind, if I thought much about it at all, while I was involved in my long-term job. Now that I have left my long-term job and am in my first decade of the concept, the conundrum has moved further into my consciousness.

Just what do we mean by the word "retirement?" Dictionary.com defines retirement as "the act of retiring or of leaving one's job, career, or occupation permanently, usually because of age."

So here's the thing. Does the word "retirement" really have meaning anymore? Leaving a long-term job, getting a pension (hopefully), signing up for Social Security and Medicare - isn't that just moving on to something else? And mandatory retirement because of age is a thing of the past in many professions. The definition talks about withdrawing from the job and society. But do people really look forward to withdrawing, or are they looking forward to something new?

Here's what surprised me when I started digging into this: research actually shows that many people find their sense of purpose increases after leaving their long-term jobs, not decreases. That goes against everything we hear about the "retirement crisis" and losing your identity when you stop working, doesn't it?

Now, I'm not saying the transition is always smooth. Some people experience what researchers call a "retirement honeymoon" - you know, that initial rush of freedom and excitement. But then a few months in, reality hits. The structure is gone. The daily routine vanishes. That work identity you built for decades? Suddenly it feels like it disappeared overnight. And that can be genuinely disorienting.

And let's be honest - if you retired during or just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition may have been even harder. Just when you were supposed to be exploring new possibilities, the world shut down. Social connections disappeared. Travel stopped. Classes moved online or canceled altogether. That isolation made it incredibly difficult to move forward into something new when everything felt frozen in place.

But here's where attitude becomes everything. If people aren't blocked by their own limited view of what's possible, they often discover they're eager to move on to other jobs or interests - using the very skills, education, and training they've been honing over the past several decades.

Think about it: Do we really leave permanently from our skills, education, and training? Or do we carry the threads of these things into the future with us? The answer seems obvious. Of course we carry what we've learned with us.

Some brave souls start their own small businesses - something they've always wanted to do. Others find more time for physical or mental fitness, better nutrition, travel. The possibilities multiply when we stop thinking of this stage as an ending and start seeing it as a beginning.

So the real question is: does our attitude stop us from moving on to what might be even more exciting, challenging, and maybe even lucrative?

If you're feeling stuck or uncertain about how to shift your thinking, there are resources that can help:

•      Life Coaching

•      Like-Minded Groups

•      Classes

•      Reading

•      Audiobooks

In my own experience, I've made several moves forward - and sometimes in completely unexpected directions. I'm not claiming to have found some final solution or perfect formula. That's not really the point. The point is to just get moving on the journey. To try things. To stay curious. To let one interesting path lead to another, even if you can't see where it's all heading.

Here's the liberating truth: we draw from our past, but we are not our past. Our decades of experience, skills, and knowledge are tools we carry forward - not chains that bind us to old identities. The person you were in your career is part of your story, but it doesn't have to define the whole story. This shift in thinking - from "who I was" to "who I'm becoming" - is perhaps the most important step in moving beyond traditional retirement into something far more vibrant and alive.

Over the next few blogs, we'll explore practical ways to break through the barriers in our own thinking and open ourselves to the endless possibilities of this new chapter.