Successful Retirement Planning—Replacing What WORK PROVIDES
In my last newsletter, I wrote about how many of us take our daily lives and the people in our lives for granted as we go about our daily routines. This is especially relevant to the world of work.
Even the things you dislike about your job—like getting up early and the commute—have a sense of rhythm and normalcy about them. Rhythm and routine are such an important part of our lives and when we are in the middle of it, it’s easy to dismiss its significance.
You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Until Its Gone
I’d like to share a personal story that illustrates this reality. Since my college days, I’ve been into health, wellness, and exercise. Running was at the top of my list of enjoyable activities. It was a great stress reliever and a wonderful way to start or end my day. I joined the Reston Runners Club and looked forward to their weekend social and running activities, especially the long runs.
In my mid-30s, I decided to step up my game by training and running in the Marine Corps Marathon. I completed that goal in 1987 within four hours somewhere in the middle of the pack. The following year, as I was training for a second marathon to improve my time, I sustained a back injury during a practice run that permanently sidelined me. Since then, I haven’t been able to run.
I remember being very disappointed and somewhat depressed because suddenly something so important to me that I had taken for granted was gone. I decided to substitute walking for running, but I wasn’t getting the same high that I did from running.
After 20 years of running, it took me at least a year to come to grips with this loss. Over time, I began to develop a different attitude. I found when I walked, I noticed and appreciated things I didn’t see while I was running. I now look forward to my daily walks with the same enthusiasm I used to have for running.
I shared this story because your perspective will be your greatest challenge when you retire. Finding substitutes for the non-financial aspects of your work day is the secret formula for successful retirement.
To put this into perspective, I created an acronym that covers most of the more important things that work provides for each of us.
The acronym I created is what “WORK PROVIDES.”
| Wages | Income, savings, and benefits (holidays, vacations, sick leave) |
| Opportunities | Promotions, networking, travel |
| Relationships | Daily contact with colleagues, clients, and coworkers |
| Knowledge | New products, trainings, workshops |
| Purpose | A reason to get up each day |
| Routine | A familiar place to go and important things to do |
| Occupation | Having your work, your company, your product |
| Values | Pride in the quality of your service, products |
| Identity | Being part of something that defines you |
| Direction | Knowing what needs to be done |
| Experience | A time and place to develop skills |
| Structure | Planned activities and schedules |
Because we are all so different, you may want to replace some of these benefits with your own list. To avoid a long newsletter, I want to talk about three benefits that are most often discussed in my seminars.
Relationships: for many of us, work is a significant part of our social life and support system, especially if you are single or tend be shy. Barbra Streisand said it well in her famous song entitled People. The famous verse was, “people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” As human beings, each of us needs some family and friends in our lives. Work builds your relationship needs into your daily life without a lot of effort. How will you replace your social network? How will you hold on to important relationships you created at work during your career while you build new relationships? More often than not, the men in my presentations say they’re worried about not being with colleagues on a regular basis.
Identity: Who are you without a job title? Does your work define who you are? Here is where your hard work begins as you start to discover other dimensions of yourself that you haven’t developed yet but would like to.
Let’s put all of this into perspective. When you’re growing up in your family, you develop a sense of who you are and what you are good at by reactions from parents and trusted family members and friends. As you get your education, enter your career and other endeavors, this also becomes a part of your identity. If you have been in a career your whole life, it is human nature for you to take on that identity as a CEO of a Corporation, a doctor, engineer, attorney, teacher, secretary etc. Without that title, how will you define yourself?
It’s easy for me to talk about this subject because I was the worst offender of being over-identified with my work. I lived, ate, and breathed my work because it was a lifelong dream to build and own my own therapy practice. But when close family members began to become sick with life-threatening illnesses, everything changed for me. I began to look at life and my over-identification with work differently.
As I approached 60, I had to grapple with the new reality. “What you do is not who you are.” Through my retirement and re-career endeavors, I have worked hard to discover other dimensions of myself. I have volunteered through my Rotary club, coached individuals, learned presentation skills through Toastmasters, and written monthly newsletters for almost 8 years. How will you discover who you are when you leave work?
Structure: This might easily be the most overlooked aspect of a successful retirement! Your retirement won’t be successful unless you create a daily routine to replace your work routine. You don’t have to be so structured that you feel constrained, but enough so that you have a daily plan with some flexibility.
For example, you could look at your daily or weekly schedule to make sure that you have included social activities, a few hours of volunteering, time with grandchildren, lunch with a friend, exercise, attending a class at your local college, and possibly some part-time employment. Having some degree of structure helps you to accomplish goals you set for what is most important to you into your lifestyle. You need to find time to be productive, socialize, volunteer, and appreciate others as well as feel appreciated.
The three items I selected might not be at the top of your list. Each of us is different but the message is the same. Find replacements for what “WORK PROVIDES.” Remember, this is your opportunity to be the “entrepreneur of your retirement lifestyle plan.”
After last month’s newsletter, I received an email from a dear friend describing how she’s done this for herself. She graciously agreed to let me share her email with you.
“I just celebrated my 71st birthday! I am the happiest I’ve ever been. I LOVE my life! I am teaching Zumba at the Senior Center, doing tours as a docent at the University Art Museum, teaching a class on the author Wallace Stegner, taking classes, working out, doing yoga, power walking, going to football games, traveling…it’s a grand time for me!
I’m going with a literary group to New Orleans in October where we will visit the places we’ve read about in A Streetcar Named Desire, A Lesson Before Dying, and some work by Kate Chopin.
I wish I had known, when I was struggling raising my kids with so little money, that my life would blossom like this! I try to enjoy every moment especially because I have lost several close friends whom I’ve known for 50 years. Every day is such a gift, isn’t it Dee?”
Now go make the very best of the rest of your life!
Dee
Dee Cascio
Author, speaker, Licensed Psychotherapist, Certified Life Coach, Retirement Lifestyle/ReCareer Coach, and Life and Work Transitions Strategies Coach.
The Life and Work Transitions Community
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Ready To Retire? Successful Retirement Planning To Make The Best Of The Rest Of Your Life
