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Make a Meaningful Retirement

leadership transition retirement Feb 04, 2025
seniors laughing

- by Sophie Pinkoski

When it comes to retirement planning, many leaders stop at the first topic: finances. Yet there are several other factors to take into consideration while dreaming up your ideal life in retirement. Your life doesn’t stop when your professional work comes to an end. In fact, retirement is a whole new beginning that happens to be more than just relaxing and spending time with your loved ones. In their report, Unretiring: Why Recent Retirees Want to Go Back to Work, T. Rowe Price found that 20% of retirees are working and 70% actively seeking work. This is largely due to the often overlooked social and emotional stimulus we receive from our professional lives. Our work fulfills many of our basic needs. A job you love will cater to all five levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (survival, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization) and each of the 6 Human Needs (certainty, variety, significance, connection, growth, and contribution). If you fail to factor these needs into your retirement plan, you run the risk of losing valuable mental stimulation and emotional support systems. Without these, you may find yourself isolated and unsatisfied with your new retirement routines.

What most individuals require for a fulfilling life is stability, meaningful activities, and a sense of belonging.

Part of this is finding a balance between enjoying a less frantic pace and activities that challenge you. This way, you can prevent both burnout and boredom all at once. Bear in mind what you perceive that you will "lose" in retirement so you can prepare yourself ahead of time to find suitable replacements for those significant aspects of your life. You may not have the same team interaction that you had every day with your colleagues anymore, but you might find that sense of belonging elsewhere by joining groups or volunteering in your local community, for instance.

Seek out experiences that bring meaning to your life outside of your career by committing to daily expressions of gratitude. Identify what you appreciated about your job in order to replicate that in your life after career.

A positive mindset going into your retirement will set you up for success.

It’s better to retire to something that brings purpose into your life rather than retiring from your career. Reflect on why you’re retiring, what you want out of your retirement, and who you want to become in the future to bring clarity to your transition.

Here is how expressing gratitude helps you build a fulfilling retirement plan:

Reframing challenges–– Regularly expressing gratitude retrains your brain to think about experiences in your daily life in a new way It’s about reconsidering challenges as opportunities for growth while also focusing on the good that happens throughout your day. By getting into the habit of recognizing at least three things you feel grateful for at the end of your day, you can build your patience to cultivate better long-term planning.

By identifying what you appreciate on a daily basis, you can pinpoint what serves you best and prioritize what you wish to bring into your ideal life after retirement.

Thinking ahead about what you want prevents you from making impulsive decisions that might hinder you from achieving your later goals. Overall, practicing gratitude for the people and experiences in your life builds emotional resilience, which leads to a deeper sense of contentment. When you know what brings you joy, you can hold on to those things in retirement, even if that means achieving them in brand new ways.

Designing the retirement life you want–– Visualizing your life in retirement can be difficult when so much of your identity is tied to your career. It can be challenging to discover who you want to become in this new chapter of your life. This can be simplified by creating a vision based on your needs, values, and passions. By aligning the life you want with your values and identity, you can curate an ideal life for your ideal self. Then, you can go out and make it a reality.

Finding out what matters most to you requires self-reflection to dig deep into what you want from your retirement.

Once you pin those priorities down, you can find ways to apply them to your daily routine. Be flexible in your ideas of how you intend to spend your time; priorities change according to where you are in your life. You never know where you’ll be in ten years' time. Give future you space to grow in the meantime.

Experimenting with hobbies, both new and old–– Part of discovering this new identity of yours might involve experimenting with different hobbies you either used to love or always wanted to try. You have the time now to explore these hobbies you could never fit into your schedule before. Those who pick up old hobbies have a more playful, nostalgic outlook on life, while those who take up new hobbies achieve a strong sense of accomplishment as they master new skills. Remember, your retirement isn’t going to always consist of rest and relaxation. Balance your moments of rest with these new experiences and stick with the ones that bring you the most joy.

Prioritizing your wellbeing–– Filling your life with meaningful experiences, hobbies, and interests also means taking care of your mental and physical health. There will be times where you feel isolated or unfulfilled by the changes happening in your life. Many things are out of your control– that can lead to stress, anxiety, and even depression. But you don’t have to let those overwhelming feelings take over your life. There are ways to uplift yourself through mindfulness and physical exercise. Mindfulness practices such as yoga, meditation, intentional breathing, walks in nature, or journaling can help you stay in the moment, focusing on the now instead of worrying about what happens next. Build a sustainable daily exercise routine on top of this to help reduce that stress and anxiety. Start slow and experiment with what activities work for you. You’re going through a huge life transition.

Make space for the range of emotions you might experience in response to that.

Let yourself feel it, acknowledge it, and find a way to let it go. The grief of leaving your career behind isn’t going to be a linear journey. Have various strategies in place to counteract these feelings when they hit.

Retirement is not just an end – it’s a new beginning, filled with opportunities to rediscover yourself, pursue your passions, and live your life on your own terms. While the transition may be daunting, remember that by aligning your goals with your values and fostering meaningful connections with the people you care about, you can curate a life in retirement that is both joyful and fulfilling. This new chapter is your chance to design a future for the person you always wanted to be.

 

Further Reading:

7 Tips To Prepare For Your Upcoming Retirement, Forbes

The Ingredients For A Happy Retirement, Forbes

Put In The Hard Work For An Easier Retirement, Forbes

Retire Without Regrets, Harvard Business Review

The Most Important Rules For Retirement Planning? Yours!, Forbes

Retirement Planning Is More Than Financial Planning, Forbes

3 Unusual New Year’s Resolutions That Boost Your Work Performance, Forbes

Beyond the Numbers: Cultivating Gratitude for a More Fulfilling Retirement, Grunden Financial Advisory

Retirement: An Opportunity For Reflection On Gratitude, Life and Work Transitions

Practicing Gratitude Can Have a Powerful Effect on Your Retirement, LinkedIn

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