Retirement Is A Time To Pivot. Not Toward 24/7 Rose Smelling.

By Karen and Erica

Long ago, in a country that was very different, you retired when you were in your 60s. You were probably a man, you might be given a gold watch, and you moved to a retirement community with your wife to play during your few remaining “golden” years.

That was actually a brief interlude in world retirement history, and it is over. In the twenty-first century our life expectancy stretches to our nineties, especially for women. We are fit and connected and vibrant. There are millions of things we want to do. And the last thing we want to do is move to a placid community filled with people our age who think they’re still living in the 1950s and have one foot out the door.

For us, retirement is simply a pivot point, not the finish line it might once have been. For us, retirement from a long career is a time to consider what we have done, what we have learned, how high we can jump from the foundation we have created. We don’t need to start all over again learning the ropes—unless we want to learn the ropes of something completely new. We can skip over the steps we took years ago. We can use the distilled experience we earned over the decades--to start a new business, to help someone still on the way up see around the corners, to write a book about how to think about retired career women. We can do whatever gives purpose to our lives. Those of us who had long term careers and who are lucky enough now to be financially secure are ready to soar.

You may not feel like this on the day you retire. On that day, you might feel cast adrift, heading toward some kind of inevitable uselessness. You might think you have outlived your purpose. This is especially true now, in the isolation that is part of COVIDland.

We went through that stage. Then we rebelled. Being put out to pasture was a ridiculous response to the achievements of the first large group of career women to reach retirement. When we were a new species, we challenged society to give us a place in the working world. We won that fight. We’re not going backwards now. We loved being players in the larger world, and we plan to stay where we are.

Once we realized that the working world thought we should go smell the roses—all day, for thirty years—we took concrete steps to show we were still in the game. We rented an office and started Lustre. Our grand plan is to change the way things are and to put our cohort on the map. As soon as we had even the barest idea of our objective, and the glimmering of a strategy, we started feeling better about ourselves.

Once you are post-career for a while, you too will get your mojo back. You will figure out something purposeful and fun to do. Until then, relax. Take as long as you need. You earned that right. Then, forge ahead. You can smell the roses on your day off.