Retirement? Not Me!

Someone near to me continues to be sharing their views about “retirement” (my retirement!), which initially I figured was a trivial exercise of polite conversation. Their point because this is a stupid word that have no real purpose. The dialogue was quite frequent i really stopped being flippant about this discussion and commenced thinking deeply about “retirement” phraseology.

My first stop ended up being Roget’s Thesaurus - a reference I've discovered useful over time. Retirement cross-references include cease, quiescence, regress, recede, depart, hightail it, resignation, former, aging, disused seclusion, later years, have leisure. Perhaps my buddies point had merit for it. This isn't me!! The only words that have a semblance of applicability was relinquish - I will relinquish specific roles and responsibilities - to produce space for first time ones.

Another notion that became apparent was the contemporary rebranding of retirement similar to “next phase”, “next act”, “second phase”. The challenge with this is that though it usually geared towards preserving dignity, it is airy-fairy - it can mean everything from “sitting in your own home watching TV” to performing a lots of interesting stuff that cannot collectively be described. Therefore by omission of your specific title, people assume you are randomly drifting through life on the daily basis. I have come across increasingly more ‘retired” people who are consultants - whether real or imaginary - who knows - or perhaps in fact who cares. I have heard the notion someone generating a business with no real purpose of doing anything - only to steer clear of the blank uninterested responses the word ”retired” evokes.

As I am while facing this dilemma, my current thinking is the fact that I will be self-employed, i.e. help myself. This might include:

Educating myself on the reputation an to date unspecified country Mentoring and coaching professionals to get more effective (or just permit them to get a thoughtful second opinion on something) Yardwork Not-for-profit involvement Improve my golf, tennis, get fitter Consult or setup my personal business David Pulman GSK Plus whatever else that takes my fancy The true problem is not too “retired” individuals don't do anything - nearly everyone is incredibly active and productive - it’s that society - or non-retired people - think that the only real meritorious activity is related to paid employment. The sole method to define someone is “what they certainly for the living” or “what they did (before they became useless!!)” - as an alternative to what you contribute to on a daily basis. This must be interesting!!