Retirement Isn't For Everybody

Retirement Isn't For Everybody

Are you the type of person who never was able live up to stereotypes? When we think of a stereotype, the classic mind picture is the image of your standard senior citizen. That image is as a slowly moving Grandma or Grandpa who is long done working at their career and wants nothing more than to sit on the back porch and wait for the next holiday to see the grandkids. Well, if you are like a lot of senior citizens of the new century, we look at that stereotype and say - forget that image!

We are the kind of people who have had the most amazing and exciting lives because we took chances and lived active lives taking on challenges and winning at most of those challenges. Probably the most puzzling idea of that sweet stereotype of Grandma and Grandpa is that we all are expected to go into retirement at 65 or 70 and stop working because we couldn't wait to retire. But not everyone is like that.

Some of us are in careers that are the calling of our lives and going to work is as much like play as it is work. You love what you do and you are good at it. It is the way you are happiest. The idea of not doing it every day of your life is more like prison than a reward at the end of life. In fact, the very idea of changing how we live because it is 'the end of life" seems like surrender as much as it is a long vacation. And we are not the kind to surrender to the inevitability that life will end. The end may come and get you, but it is going to have to find me first and then it will have a fight on its hands.

Don't misunderstand, I am ready to go when my time runs out, I do not fear death because I know that I will be joining many of my relatives and friends in a place much better than this earth. However, I am enjoying my wife and children and my beautiful granddaughters, Jordan and Carson.

If you are that kind of person, retirement may not be for you because retirement isn't for everybody. And just because some people have the image of stopping their careers just when things were getting great as a way to live their last few decades, why should you be forced to live someone else's dream? That is why we live in a free country. You should not be forced to retire. Well, maybe you could take up a sport!

If you love what you do, continue to do it. Getting up and going to work is as much of what makes your blood go through your veins and keeps your metabolism balanced as much as good food and rest. People by nature are born to work. It's what defines us and making something to contribute to society and being rewarded for that labor is what makes you tick. So you should not feel bad when you are the senior citizen that throws the stereotype out the window and continues to thrive doing what you love - working at your job.

In today's economy it may be necessary to put off retirement for a while longer. It may be that your 401K has, like many, become a 101k and it is necessary to continue to be employed just to make it from day to day. Continuing to work can be as fulfilling as a passive retirement, maybe better. You might not be able to travel, but with the security lines what they are, maybe a video of Ireland or Italy would be better spent with your family than being reminded once again that there is no place like home.

A friend of mine who couldn't wait to retire and sit in his big chair and watch television and the birds in the fields. He sat in that chair until he died which was not that long after he retired. He was not active and had no goals to strive toward except wait for the next copy of the television listings. He lived and died as he wanted to and much the same as many stereotypes.

One way to expand your role in the profession you love is not to step down but to step into the role of senior advisor, chief counsel and wise old owl of the office. Your decades of experiences are a treasure trove of wisdom and a source of teaching for the young pups coming up. Even tho' they may believe that they know everything and you are just an old fool who will not get out of their way, they don't. This is one reason why in some companies all around the country, management is seeing the wisdom of retaining senior citizen workers rather than forcing them into retirement.

While it is certainly true that many senior citizens do not know how to use a computer, many of them do and want to know more. I was at a meeting recently and the leader asked if anyone had a computer to make a recording of the meeting to be converted to the required minutes, but no one did. He asked if anyone had anything that would record and the room was silent for a minute and one of the old guys spoke up and said, "I have a pencil!" None of the younger staff dudes thought of a pencil and a piece of paper.

This is a big shift from the mentality that was prevalent for far too long that thought the old had to get out of the way for the new. Now the old are or can be a precious resource to teach the young how to do things which were not taught in Harvard. The way they learned was by experience. By treating senior citizens with reverence and respect, business is learning what many civilizations have known for a long time, senior citizens are a treasure to be prized and cared for, not thrown away.

Cause Joy!