Self-Improvement

Richard Leider’s famous line about purpose sounds beautiful on a poster — but retirement is the stress test that reveals whether you actually built a life around it or just admired the idea from a distance.

When I was working as an executive in education, I had a clear picture of what a “rich” retirement would look like. A comfortable pension. No mortgage. Enough in the savings account to travel when I wanted. If I could tick those boxes, I’d be set. Then I actually retired. And I discovered something that

If I could sit down with the version of myself who was five years away from retirement, there are a few things I’d want to say. Not the financial stuff — she had that mostly covered. I’m talking about the things that blindsided me. The emotional shifts, the identity questions, the strange grief that arrived

A woman named Margaret sat across from me at a coaching session a few years ago, still wearing her corporate lanyard like a phantom limb. She’d retired eleven weeks earlier from a senior role in logistics — corner office, company car, a team of forty. She told me she’d spent the first week sleeping in.

A few years ago, my calendar looked impressive. Coffee catch-ups. Zoom calls. Family commitments. Writing deadlines. Exercise classes. From the outside, it looked like a vibrant, engaged life. From the inside, I was exhausted. Not physically tired in the way sleep fixes. Energetically drained. And what made it more confusing was this: I wasn’t lonely.