The transition from work to retirement....

keedge

keedge

New Member
Location
Vacaville, California
I posted this in my "Linked In" account but thought it might be interesting to those who might be nearing retirement and thinking about how your work like mind might transition to your retirement mind.

This is taken in collaboration with AI. I fed in the details of my transition, and this is the list it came up with to show where my "work" mind transitioned into my "retirement" mind.

Work Engineering: Retirement Engineering:
Interrupt-driven Self-paced
External urgency Internal motivation
Someone elseā€™s priorities Your priorities
On-call stress Optional iteration
Failure = escalation Failure = adjustment
 
Some, like me, adjust very quickly. Never looked back, starting the next day.
Some require time to adjust. Give yourself that transition time, we're programmed to "go, go. go"
but then - "now what"? How about testing some "you time" for a change?
 
Last September retirement called, I didn't ask to retire, at 79 I still enjoyed my working life. It was the company's insurers who, frothing at the mouth, freaked out about a 79-year-old employee.
Retirement hasn't been easy but I would hasten to add, don't let my experience put you off. My work was more of a paid hobby rather than a tedious bore.
Others have said that an interest, like my wife's love of dressmaking, fills the day and gives it a stimulus. To that end I have taken to writing, It helps. Good luck with your retirement, I do hope you enjoy it.
 
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I've seen posts from new retirees stating that they took their alarm clocks out onto the driveway and smashed them into bits with
a sledge hammer (or equivalent destructive device) to demonstrate their new freedom. Some say it was quite healing & invigorating.
 
I have finally got the retirement and SS payments all setup and flowing. So now I can say I am officially in retirement. The last 2 months, while I wasn't working anymore, didn't feel like I was retired yet since it took a while or the SS payment to finally process that first payment, and I rolled over our work 401k into an IRA for more flexibility in how I have it all allocated and for automated monthly withdrawals. Now that it is all completed, I feel retired.

As for the alarm clock posts that @Gark referred to, I had been waking up before my alarm clock for years. So I didn't have that satisfaction. For me it is that I don't have to get up if I don't want to. But I am finding that I get up earlier now than I did when I worked. Seems odd to me, but that is where I am at for the moment. I still keep basically the same sleep pattern now in retirement that I did while working. Maybe that will change over time.
 
I haven't used an alarm clock since the youngest of my kids was still in high school, didn't want to risk us not being up and ready on time.

During the years after that when I was still working full time, I automatically woke up when I needed to.. alarm clock wasn't necessary.

Since I retired, I still wake up early, and as soon as my eyes open I see kitty standing there staring at me. šŸ˜
 
keedge said:
But I am finding that I get up earlier now than I did when I worked.
Click to expand...
I'm the same post retirement, while working I was always up at 5:15AM, on the job before 6, now I'm up at 4:15AM, at the gym by 5. Always had an alarm clock set when working but was always up before it buzzed, now I don't set one, but still wake earlier.

For me I believe I sleep better in retirement than while working, no stress, even though I still wake often I feel a better quality of sleep means I need less time in bed.

Congrats on everything working out for you, hope you enjoy retirement!
 
Gark said:
Some, like me, adjust very quickly. Never looked back, starting the next day.
Some require time to adjust. Give yourself that transition time, we're programmed to "go, go. go"
but then - "now what"? How about testing some "you time" for a change?
Click to expand...
My sister just retired. She was a doctor and has a lot of doctor friends, specialists. They ask her how she does it and she gives them ideas. They are so used to only work work work, that they have no idea what to do when they can't work. My sis just chills. They go sail or go drive somewhere, take the dog out. They write her tips down how to amuse themselves LOL.
 
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