Retirement: Resilience is key to successful retirement

Here’s a topic that if you want to scare the hell out of most people, especially men (myself included), bring the topic up.  Most people would say that they want to retire, but most don’t understand how to or doubt they will ever be able to.  To or not to retire may be the question.  And, if so, when and how?  For most people there is a question of how to finance retirement.  If finances aren’t an issue, then the biggest question quite often, especially for men in our society, is what will I do with my time?  Will you start a second career?  Find a new job?  Volunteer?  For most of us, fishing and playing golf will not be enough.

To have a successful retirement, we need to find a sense of purpose.  It is not about just keeping busy.  Or staying out of our partner’s way.

Moving into retirement for myself has meant cutting back some of my clinical work and doing some things that I’ve wanted to do, such as write.  I found some success with this.  A second novel, First Night, which is a continuation of a story that I began in my first, Reaching Home, has just been released.  For most of my life, clinical work as a psychologist has provided a great dealing of meaning to me, and still does, as does the role of father and husband.  But writing has added another sense of purpose to my life.  Reaching Home was about finding a place we feel at home.  Not a physical place, but a place within our lives.  First Night is about the conflict between hope and cynicism which is an issue most of us must confront.

So as we get older and as we retire from certain areas of our life, we continue to need to find a balance.  We need to focus and live for today and for the future and remember the lessons that we have learned from the past.  We also need to keep a sense of humor, take care of ourselves and others, and create purpose and meaning in the things that we do.  If we continue to do this, retirement may be a wonderful experience, and getting older may be much better than we thought it would be