Hello! I had some revelations this morning! Seriously!
As of today, I am only 4 more months from my expected retirement date. It has been a long road…looking back over 40ish years of working, raising a family, triumphs and tragedies, it is kind of hard to realize this milestone in my life is about to come to fruition. We have worked hard, planned financially and otherwise, and now I am very excited…and, to be honest, a little scared!
As I have communicated these past few months with my manager and team at work and shared plans with family and friends, I realize that, while they see me get ready for this moment and are happy for me, there is some bit of wistfulness about some of those I know…those who have from 1 year up to probably 40 years before they too reach this milestone. I understand that since I have experienced it too when seeing others retire ahead of me.
But, here is what my real revelation this morning was…whether you are 1 year or 40 years away from your own retirement time, NO ONE has to wait till then to do what we have been talking about…that is, everyone could benefit from our “notebook of ideas” we have been talking about, to dream and plan for next week, next year, or whenever, to list things that you want to do! And, I don’t mean just things to do when you retire, but RIGHT NOW! I realized I needed to tell this to everyone before we proceed too far down the line in this blog, not just those getting ready to retire or retired, but all of us who are living life in EVERY phase!
Life is busy…no revelation there! LOL! But sometimes it gets SO busy, just keeping up with working, the daily stuff, relationships, meaningfully engaging with family and friends, that we don’t realize we can make time for at least some stuff that we would otherwise think of as only for “when I retire.” WHY? It is fantastic to look ahead to the “golden years” as they are called, but why can’t where we are right NOW be golden, too? I know some things just take more time, so when you retire is ideal BUT not everything you want to do takes so much time that you couldn’t do it NOW if you thought about it and planned for it!
If we don’t think about and plan for the things we are interested in doing, they won’t ever happen, whether that is in our retirement years, OR….right NOW!
Of course, some of you may never actually “retire” in the typical meaning of the word, whether by choice or by need; or your retirement may look very different from the typical definition (e.g., a second career, your own business, foreign missionary work, or whatever!) So that makes it even more important not to let time fritter away till there is no more, to make plans for yourself, for your NOW, and also for your typical retirement, your non-traditional retirement, OR your non-retirement! There’s no right way to get to this point, but everyone has a NOW we should make the most of!
So, if you are in your twenties, thirties, sixties or anywhere in between or beyond….I challenge you to think today about the things you would really like to do or accomplish! Get yourself a notebook and brainstorm, just like we have been talking about! Check out my previous blogs to get yourself started. Goals and plans that don’t get written down don’t happen.
EVERYONE can have fun with this, and if you start now, by the time you retire in whatever form you choose (or don’t retire!), you will be on such a roll with your habit of incorporating plans and goals into your life that your ongoing future will just be OVERFLOWING with purposeful ideas!
I hope you take this challenge and continue to follow along with all of us on this journey. Even though this blog is called “RETIRE with Joy and Purpose”, it is really “LIVE IN ALL SEASONS with Joy and Purpose”!! We only have one life – be sure to plan now to live it joyfully and purposefully every day!
Take care, Mary