Do you enjoy your work? Do you have a sense of achievement from your work? Perhaps at work you use your creativity and push yourself to overcome your own personal obstacles or limitations. Your work may help you to grow and develop. Your work accomplishments might give you a sense of satisfaction, even pride and joy. Such accomplishments may be noticed by others and earn their respect – a huge potential perk from being successful while working with others.
If so, what will replace your sense of achievement when you retire?
Work used to be what you did before you retired into a life of leisure. Its major function was to provide income. But both work and retirement are changing. With much longer life expectancies, there can be much more of retirement than there used to be.
Here is a dictionary definition of work – “an activity to achieve a purpose or result.” With that definition it is easier to understand that work can be included in your life both before and after retirement.
All of this raises the question of the role of work in your retirement, if any. If your pre-retirement work is providing you with the satisfactions of achievement and contribution to others, what happens when the work ends?
Consider the situation of Steve who retired in his 60’s. Steve had been an operations manager—well respected in his field. For a couple of years after he retired, he found himself at a loss. He found having too much time sapped his energy. He was too young, he thought, not to be productive or to be making a significant contribution to his community.
He started looking around for something to do. His wife suggested that he volunteer at “Feed My Starving Children,” which provides a million meals a day to starving children around the world. He did that.
Steve worked there part-time for several years as a volunteer. Now he is paid as a staff member. He does part-time recruiting of young and old volunteers to help in the organization’s mission. His work provides significant help for children who need food and through that provides a lasting legacy as well. The efforts and accomplishments of the organization are aligned with Steve’s own personal values. It provides him with a sense of purpose.
When you retire you can choose from many alternatives. You can decide not to end your work completely. You might be able to continue working part-time in the same or similar job. Second, like Steve you can choose from a huge variety of paid and unpaid part-time work opportunities in the same or different fields.
If you’re lucky enough to have enough income to support yourself, retirement can be a time of freedom to choose and to change. You can try out various activities and continue or not. In fact, many retirees experiment during the earlier years of their retirement to find the right opportunity for them.
Think again about the definition of work, which is an activity to achieve a purpose or result. Is helping children or parents or grandchildren work? Yes–work can be fun! Is pursuing a passion work? It can be. All of these and many others can be ways for you to continue to be fully alive, to accomplish important activities and to contribute to the common good.
If work activities in retirement are somewhat challenging and push you out of your comfort zone, that can be helpful too. There is some recent research evidence that activities which challenge your brain can forestall dementia. Equally important is that work in retirement can be exciting and meaningful. In retirement you have the freedom to have your best years yet.