I mention in my last update that another birthday passed and that means that I am one step closer to retirement. I am now 65 and since I reach full retirement age next year (66 and 2 months) I am in my final year of working, (because I have to). At the end of 2021, if not sooner, I will be retiring and directing my energies elsewhere. I am at the end of the first of the five stages of retirement, the pre-retirement phase and ready to experience the second stage, full retirement.
While the thought of retiring is a little scary I also feel excited and find the thought of it as somewhat freeing. While not too worried I can see that I am not alone because depending on who you read between 56 and 60 % of us report losing sleep thinking about retirement. I haven’t lost any sleep but can say that it causes a small panic attack every now and again. But for the most part I feel like I did when I was approaching the end of high school I was excited to get out and test the waters to see what life was all about. I agree that I haven’t figured that part out yet but I am still looking.
It is yet to be seen if I will hit all five of the retirement stages but I will be on the lookout for each of the remaining four. They go by such labels as Full Retirement or Honeymoon, Disenchantment, Reorientation and Reconciliation & Stability. So for starters I will continue to search for my true purpose. Which for now means that I will continue to work and try to remain relevant.
I am going to embrace these words of wisdom:
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” — Fred Rogers
AgingwithHennessey 