Lunch With a Fellow Retiree

Recently I met a friend and former colleague for lunch to catch up after several months. After the initial updates on family, we jumped into discussing how each of us is doing in retirement – me after 15 months and him after 3 months. That conversation became a direct follow-on to my recent post “Reinventing Yourself”.

We both are from process-oriented careers and are both six sigma master black belts. Our early conversations around retirement – we’ve been discussing our respective retirements for a few years – featured both of us looking forward to exiting the corporate world, taking time to exhale, then getting into consulting in some way to utilize the skills we built up over long careers. Through my posts you know that I have since done a 180 on that and am now pursuing writing and training. The former only came into focus about a year ago when I started this blog. The latter is something I have always enjoyed but didn’t have a way to pursue until very recently. Check out the Training section of my site for info on Productively Funny, a great team taking a unique approach to business training.

My friend has already formed his own process consulting firm and has landed a few clients to get off to a good start. As we talked though, he told me about other things he is thinking about. After so many years in the process world, his interests are turning elsewhere; to new things, thing he enjoys doing rather than things he had done for most of his career. He visibly brightened and relaxed as he talked about those potential ventures. It reminded me of another friend, an accomplished musician who got back together with a former bandmate but didn’t play any of their old music. He told me that they enjoyed playing together but couldn’t bear to play the same stuff again, they needed something new to re-energize them.

Retirement has become the opportunity to do just that as our health and longevity increase. It’s your time, you’ve earned it, so use it to do things you enjoy. There are so many ways to use the skills and experience from your long career in new and different areas. Now that you have time, taking classes to learn new skills or to strengthen your expertise is also a great option. And with so much offered on the internet, it’s never been easier to learn and explore. Not only will you find classes and resources, you can connect with groups formed around things that interest you, locate opportunities to volunteer and give back, and maybe discover a completely new area to pursue.

Whatever you do, whether it’s get back into a favorite hobby or sport, start your own business, volunteer, or just kick back for a while to exhale and open yourself up to possibilities, make sure you keep your brain and your body active with things you enjoy. That is the key to a productive and rewarding future – your future.

I'll be off the next couple of weeks to celebrate the Independence Day holiday and take a trip with our nieces and nephew. Next post will be in mid-July, stay tuned.