Personal reflections and stories of people finding new direction, adapting and shaping a fulfilling second act.
There are two useful ways of thinking about wellbeing. Hedonic wellbeing is the pleasure and enjoyment we get from life. Eudaimonic wellbeing is the satisfaction that comes from meaning, personal growth and doing things that matter to us. Psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci explored these two approaches in their review of wellbeing research. The […]
Every now and then I come across someone who makes me stop and think, Yes. That’s it. I had one of those moments recently when I read the story of a 100-year-old man. I’ll call him John, because I want to share what his story made me think about rather than identify him. John retired
I didn’t suddenly find myself alone in my 60s—the connections that had held my life together simply began to disappear I did not expect connection to be one of the hardest parts of retirement. I had prepared myself—or at least I thought I had. I had worked out the finances. I had a bucket list.
When I first retired, I thought the main question had already been answered. I had decided when to stop working, finished the job and stepped away from the career that had structured so much of my adult life. What I had not answered was what would pull me forward once the job was gone. That
A few months into my retirement, I had a moment I wasn’t expecting. I was sitting at the kitchen table on a Tuesday morning. No calendar pulling at me, no inbox tightening my chest. Just three empty hours and a cup of coffee I’d forgotten to drink. And what I felt wasn’t the freedom I’d
The question I sat with for three months after I retired Read More »
For the first few weeks after she retired, Margaret felt exactly how she thought she would feel. Relieved. No more early alarms. No more meetings. No more pressure to keep up, show up, decide, manage, respond, and hold everyone else’s needs in her head. She had worked hard for decades. She had raised children, built
For a long time, I thought I understood retirement. I had worked for decades. I had done demanding jobs. I had carried responsibility, made decisions, supported people, managed pressure, and kept going through years where my diary seemed to belong to everyone except me. So when retirement came closer, I thought I was ready. In
I thought I was ready for retirement — then it unravelled me Read More »
There’s a moment in retirement that can take people by surprise. It may not happen on the first day, when there are still farewell cards on the kitchen bench and messages coming in from colleagues. It may not happen in the first few weeks, when there is relief, sleep, travel, gardening, sorting cupboards, catching up
Julie didn’t retire with a grand plan to see the world. In fact, when she first finished work, she thought travel would be something she did occasionally — a reward, perhaps, after decades of being reliable, useful, and needed. A few weeks away here and there. A visit to somewhere she had always wanted to
When I left my executive role in education a few years ago, I expected the hardest part to be the loss of routine. What I didn’t expect was how quickly my social world would thin out. The corridor conversations were gone. The team birthdays. The Friday afternoon debriefs that were half-work, half-friendship. My circle didn’t
