Is Retirement Looming? Ten Facts For A Reality Check.

By Erica and Karen

Is the first day of your post-career life getting closer? Are you disbelieving? Scared? You should be. You are about to embark on a strange journey.

But it will end well.

Here are ten true facts about what’s next:

1. You will be overnight in unknown territory. No structure. No community. No obligations. No place to go. No paycheck.

2. You will encounter people who act as if you are overnight you became ancient, and lost your former intelligence. Those people labor under the false impression that once retired, women like us become old and gray and out of shape, mentally and physically. That all we want to do is chillax. Forever. Or for the few years left to us.

3. You will wonder how your identity spontaneously combusted. You used to be smart and sought after. Suddenly you are neither. See Point 2.

4. You might wish devoutly to get back to your old job, or another one just like it, a warm, familiar home where you know your place, and everyone else’s, and your former colleagues will once again see you as you are. Note: You must resist this impulse.

5. You will realize at some point there’s no going back. You will be anxious because you will also realize that you can’t see through the fog ahead.

6. But once you get to that point, you will have turned the corner. Slowly, the clouds will begin to dissipate and the sun will start to shine.

7. You will see the changes clearly. You will start feeling excited as you start building a community that includes people you would probably never have met in your old life. You will begin to feel glad you did not go back to your old job. (Promise.)

8. You will realize you have, for the first time ever, the freedom to do things you have always wanted to do. Become a design maven. Learn to fly. Run for office. Exhilarating!

9. Your old identity is in the past, but that identity is the essential foundation for your new one, which is going to be more fluid. More confident. Maybe more open. Very fabulous.

10. You will wake up one day just thrilled to be retired from your first career.

Enjoy yourself for the first few months. You’ll be busy soon.