Why is he so sensitive about the word "retirement"?
“I haven’t f…ing retired… I’m just doing different things”
That’s how one bloke responded to his “mate” needling him about retiring, or in his case, his transition to retirement, taking every Wednesday off work.
It’s in an article I read recently. In which the bloke goes on to say:
“Why am I so sensitive about the word “retirement”?
I wrote about “retirement” being an embarrassing word, too, in my own book, You’ll Hate Retirement. Specifically, how '“retiree” can be synonymous with sitting bored and helpless in the Exit Lounge of Life, having grown old, frail and insignificant, no longer making a dent in the universe.
The meaning of all this is, retirement as an idea is being reinvented, and either the word will get retired itself, or mean something different. Perhaps many different things.
For instance, perhaps it will mean less competing with your next door neighour, sister-in-law, or high school best friend about the make of your car or size of your house, and more interest in being satisfied by what really matters to you.
Or perhaps it will mean leaving your all-consuming job, the one you endure to fatten your super, for work that’s more sustainable and purposeful, essentially retiring without retiring at all.
Or perhaps it will mean auditioning for next season’s MasterChef.
Or kicking off your unexplored body building potential (which is a hat tip to my email yesterday).
In other words, perhaps you never want to f…ing retire… you just want to do different things.
Need help finding those things out?
Then step into my Retirement Coaching Asylum here: