By Erica and Karen

If we had known when we retired from our careers what we know now, we might have made some changes in how we dealt with the whole thing.

1. First, we would approach retirement with more enthusiasm—now that we know how great it can be. In fact, we would have been thrilled for the next adventure.

2. We would enjoy our last days in our careers more, since we wouldn’t be so apprehensive of the great unknown that was retirement for us.

3. We would seek out some of our colleagues who retired before we did (assuming they seemed to be having fun) to see what they were up to, rather than being scared that if we spoke to a retired person we might accidentally catch retirement.

4. We would plan even livelier retirement parties.

5. We would enjoy those first few months of relaxation and fun even more than we did, because we would realize how short-lived they would be.

6. We would tell our friends and families not to be so worried. Of course we did do that, but we would have spoken with more authority.

7. We would not spend even a second thinking we might want our old, though beloved, jobs back, because we would know that the world is a big place and there are lots of things to do after a career ends. As it turns out, we figured out how to have some of the fabulous parts of our jobs and ditch some of the less fabulous parts. Win win.

8. We would also discard any thought that we should work full time, in the way we had done for four decades. Now that we have experienced the control we have over our lives, we would not give it up.

9. We would discard some of our career clothes faster than we did. We like revisioning our wardrobe, but we would quickly relinquish to others still in the fray the dark suits for when we had to look sober.

10. We would spend even more time that we did trying to convince those now coming up, especially our women colleagues, that working until retirement has amazing rewards.

When retirement happened to us, we had no strategy, no attractive role models and no vision for our next adventure. We were just scared. We lost our bearings. That was not so bright. We had made our way before, and we should have known we could do it again.

Don’t make the mistakes we did! Embrace retirement!