Do you ever think that retirement is right for you? Setting around, playing golf, fishing, and traveling may seem appealing for a time but will get boring fast. Those that do nothing only last for an average of four years. Playing golf or fishing is only fun for a time and then becomes boring.
The Buy OFF
For many in the past retirement was the way those in leadership kept people loyal. Augustus Caesar paid his officers well in retirement to keep them loyal. In the industrial age, the carrot of retirement was used as an inducement to work in soul-killing jobs.
Today the use of retirement as a carrot is changing but is still used. Retirement is often used to move someone out of the picture and replace that person. In my parent’s generation, it was a way to keep the ball rolling.
Killing Your Heart
Retirement can be a terrible way to treat people. To move them out once they are a certain age. It assumes that after a certain age a person has no value. You are told to suck it up today because in retirement it will be all green pastures and lush. It’s going to be wonderful in a few decades.
Cost of the Trade-Off
- It encourages taking jobs that aren’t fulfilling.
- It brings with it, reduced mental function, heart attack, and stroke.
- It assumes that most have lived past their prime, and don’t have anything to contribute to society.
- It deprives the community of the contributions that many have to offer.
Time to Think Differently
Retirement is an unhealthy concept.
Eliminate the word retirement from our vocabulary. If we choose to change the direction of our work later in life that is fine. But it’s not retirement. Staying engaged in the world, is meaningful.
Keep the door open.
The more you know and grow the more valuable you are. Stay committed to going full out to the end.
Commit to being productive longer.
Don’t retire too soon. If you love your work why would you retire? You may change the work you do, but retire?
If you are doing meaningful work that you enjoy why would you want to retire? If you’re not then why are you still working in the current position? It’s time to reconsider, if you are looking for shade in the pasture. Thankfully most people are looking to retire retirement.
If you are considering retirement, look for a job change instead.
Question: How would it change your life now if you stretched your working life by a decade or more?
Quote of the Week: “And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln