Quote:
Originally Posted by batman911
Sadly, I am one that loves my job and am not looking forward to retirement as much as others. I also love having time off for golf and other outdoor activities. Money is no longer the deciding factor of when to retire. I'm sure others have been in the same situation. My only concern is that I retire and then miss the challenge of work and become bored with recreation every day. Sort of like eating ice cream for every meal. There is no going back to your old job once you retire. I will be 65 this year but my wife is 8 years behind. She is ready to retire now. Maybe I have become a stress junkie. Any words of wisdom from people who were in a similar position?
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I used to think that what I did in my legal career was so great that I would be hobbling around in a courtroom with a cane and a little gray bun someday - that's what I remember saying; I just couldn't imagine a life without it; my career so defined me as a person that I couldn't separate myself from it. So I can really understand what you are feeling. What happened for me is that I stumbled onto another interest, wholly unexpectedly, that fascinated me, and because of that I gradually gave up my law practice, so the separation from it was a less 'drastic' step, which is something that I realize isn't as easy with a job. But what I found, and it became even much more evident once we moved to TV, is that there is alot to be said for free, uncommitted, unstructured time (something that was rare during my career); and time to consider and learn about other things. I started seeing myself as very narrow, because I had been so immersed in law and raising children, the only two things I had really focused on for most of my life, that I didn't even realize what else I was missing out on in life.
Maybe for someone who has a job, it might be helpful to just take off a few weeks or months, or as long as you can, rent a home in TV, and totally, deliberately absorb yourself in TV lifestyle. You may be surprised at all there is here - not just 'to do' to fill up your time (I hate the idea of just 'killing' time), but opportunities for learning and evolving as a person. There are so many interesting and talented people here that I feel like in the past 3 years of living here I have grown alot as a person. The clubs program here, for example, gives us the opportunity to learn from the collective knowledge and experience of educated, intelligent people from all over the world and from many different backgrounds. There are many purposeful, self-fulfilling things you can do outside of a job, including joining public service organizations, etc. Then, there is also travel!
Your analogy of 'eating ice cream for every meal' is a good way to describe how I now in retrospect feel that my life was during my career, because the requirements of my work kept life pretty much the same, and didn't allow me to experience alot of change and personal growth, or time to try new things.