Renewing our sense of meaning and purpose concludes this 5-part series on what it’s like to be newly retired. Work provides many things in exchange for our time, talent and judgement, such as income, a community of belonging, challenges to learn from and apply our craft, and recognition of our contributions. Retirement is a change event to rethink our “why” beyond a corporate setting.
This is the second of five posts on what it’s like to be newly retired – this one on Rest. We are all more tired than we know. The corporate timeclock subjugates our unique circadium rhythm. Before feet hit the floor in the morning, we already feel behind. Weekends can’t make up for the workweek’s sleep deficit. Vacations get truncated midway as the internal hard drive starts whirring on looming catch up – any earned rest is quickly forgotten. So, is it any surprise that every recent retiree I’ve connected with says they crave rest?
This is the third of five posts on what it’s like to be newly retired – this on Restoring physical wellbeing. If you are the unicorn who has consistently done cardio, stretched and managed stress over your career, I salute you and invite you back for the next R. However, if accumulated years hunched over a computer has tightened some muscles and sitting in long meetings shortened others, we know that all have taken a toll on postural alignment and flexibility. Stress-induced inflammation and gut issues could also be in play. While time pressures may have restricted ability to consistently commit to an exercise prescription, downshifting is the perfect time to attend to physical well-being before tolerations demand more attention.
This is the fourth of five posts on what it’s like to be newly retired – this one on Re-creating – infusing our lives with dimension and enjoyment. This is the playful, creative, silly, adventurous and exciting sides of ourselves that may have flattened during our years of executive gravitas, moreso during the pandemic.
This is the first of five posts on what it’s like to be newly retired – this one on Reconnecting (four more R’s to be revealed in future posts!). I am pictured here with old friends, my awesome former boss of 18 years Randy Waddell and colleague Mark Adamy. We met up for lunch recently, not having seen each other since our retirements last year.