Sometimes I Get Scared
If you’re reading this on Sunday, February 11th when it was published, I’ve been retired for exactly 90 working days. That excludes 20 Saturdays, Sundays, and 7 holidays. Mostly, it’s been great. While focused on experiences that bring me joy, I have a secret.
In this blissful void of corporate responsibility, there are moments of sheer panic. I quit my job! What the hell was I thinking? Am I ready for this? Being retired is an adjustment. I’ve prepared for years for this moment. I’ve talked to more than fifty retirees about how they spend their time, their levels of happiness, and what they would do differently.
As my SMART goals for the first 100 days are being accomplished, I am becoming more comfortable. I’ve stopped thinking about friends working for Fortune 50 companies earning high salaries, and enjoying company health benefits like we did in our 40s and 50s. My mother, my career mentor, advised me to “do the math.” Her motto was working and delaying filing for social security until age 70 for the maximum monthly benefit.
In reality, there is one individual-contributor friend older than me working for any Fortune-ranked company. My mother only lived twelve years in retirement. I did the math. No, thank you!
“You’re a top applicant for several jobs on LinkedIn.” In the first month of retirement, this message taunted me. It has a “Find out how many” button. I did not take the bait and never clicked the button. Over 46 years of corporate life, there have been too many interviews, resumes, thank-you notes, and recruiter follow-up emails to estimate.
Do I want to compete in today’s Corporate Job Search Olympics? No, thank you!
I was having moments of panic leading a team of primarily men on a global project with high visibility to senior management decades ago. My therapist shared recommendations I’ve tweaked to my current situation. Her classic advice has helped. Customize any of her ideas if you can use them along your journey, wherever you’re headed. Please add your thoughts on facing midlife adjustments in the comments.
(1) Remind yourself of the last time you overcame what appeared to be an insurmountable goal. What knowledge, skills, and attributes did you employ? How can you leverage those KSAs in your current project?
(2) Take care of your entire self—emotionally, physically, spiritually, and psychologically. Prioritize sleep! Write yourself post-it notes if you need reminders.
(3) She focused me on the second principle of Stephen Covey’s 1989 classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
(4) Engage the team by getting to know them and how this project aligns with their personal and career goals.
(5) Activate your inner pep squad and visualize success!
Outside of three years toiling in a traditional job, I’ve been a solo freelancer since 1993. And I still get scared.
Bravo, Brenda! I'm happily three (almost four) years into "retirement" (from the more-than-fulltime teaching job), doing work that suits me (AWA writing groups, writing coaching), and am soooo happy! It can be scary at times, but it is BRILLIANT... as are you!