Is Retirement Life's Final Act?
By Scott Gese
Retirement doesn’t mean you completely shut down, quit or give up on everything you do. Retirement is not the same as a small business calling it quits. You may be shuttering the door on your 9 to 5 but you’re not retiring from life. Retirement is not life's final act as some people think. You're not retiring from the things you love to do. Those doors just opened wider.
Your friends and family members who are still slaving away at their place of employment may not understand. They can’t figure out why you still put in twenty or more hours a week helping out in your community, volunteering for a cause you believe in or spending time being a productive member of society. And doing it all for very little or no pay.
I’ve known people who have retired and started a small business. Owning their own business was something they have always wanted to do but never had the time to do it. Now they are finally able to do the one thing they love. Most people wouldn’t consider that as being retired, but they do.
If you truly understand what retirement is, you’ll know it’s more about trading your time. Moving it away from the things you have to do and toward the things you want to do. What is your passion?
Retirement is about time and freedom.
It’s no longer about the money. It’s about having more time and the freedom to choose how you spend it. Freedom to set your own hours and the freedom to follow your own rules. (If you even have rules)
Retirement is about the lack of stress in your life.
When you’re doing what you love it doesn’t matter how many hours you spend at it each day. The more the better. The time zips by faster than you realize. You almost wish there were more of them in a day.
During your down time you can’t wait until you can get back to the things you love doing. There is no stress involved. No deadlines or quotas to meet and no boring meetings to attend. Most working people don’t understand it. They might get a small taste of it during their allotted week or two of vacation time each year. But they won’t fully understand it until they can experience it for themselves.
It’s about becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be.
A 9 to 5 job holds you back from experiencing the world on a much larger scale. You are no longer confined to a cubical, a machine or a warehouse for a third of your day. You now have time to explore those things you were only able to dream about.
Day dreams and pipe dreams of the past now have a chance to become reality. Now you can expand your world if you choose to. Go places and do things that were beyond your grasp while you were working.
Don’t hold on to the misconception that retirement is the final chapter in your productive life. The truth is it can be the very beginning if you choose to make it so.
Enjoy your retirement. Every last minute of it. You now have the freedom to do exactly what it is you love doing. Now you can spend as much time at it as you like. Let those who are still working think what they want. At the moment they have no clue.
The day will come when they get to experience it for themselves.
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