Things you might miss from your worklife once you have retired
Things you may miss from work
As I always say with regard to retirement: you won’t know what it’s like till you get there. You may find that statement puzzling, particularly if retirment is a life-destination you have been craving for years, but please bear with me.
To set the scene I have a question. The question I want to pose is this: which aspects of your work life will you miss when you retire? Before you rush in and say “Nothing. I’ll be thrilled to get out of there and turn the page to a new chapter of my life”, let me challenge you.
I choose to challenge you with examples, albeit a small sample of three, as each person’s experience will look different.
1. FIP
I heard this acronym recently on a podcast. FIP stands for Formerly Important Person (I use the acronym RDS. Relevance Deprivation Syndrome, but they are the same). Now this may not apply to you but in my work as a retirement coach I often witness it, because if you were in any position of seniority at work then in retirement you will quickly notice that your phone is not beeping and your email has gone quiet. You may rejoice or weep at this, and as I don’t know you I can’t tell, but I predict you will have a reaction.
2. Identity
Whether you drove a train or had a high political position you certainly had an identity at work that informed strangers of what you did for a living. In retirement do you want to be known simply as “that retired person”? I doubt it.
3. Being valued by others
I’m sure your work colleagues (if you had them) valued your work. If not you probably didn’t last in the job. So isn’t being valued a good thing, didn’t it make you feel worthy? Where will you derive that feeling of being valued in retired life?
I’ve outlined a few aspects of work you may miss. There are many, many more I could have chosen, but if any of these three resonates with you, what will you do about it?
That’s a question I’d be happy to answer if you email me at jon@64plus.com.au
Jon Glass Retirement Coach