My Phases of Retirement

Our Guest Contributor, Tom Pattison, writes to us, and for us, about his phases of retirement. It's an interesting perspective as Tom walks us through (hmm, maybe crawls us through) the phases that he remembers and the phases he's looking forward to. Thank you Tom.

It occurred to me that retirement began long before I realized. Those early years of life don’t provide me with a lot of memories; however, I am told that I did “retire” my baby phase of diapers and crawling to walking and talking!

Goal-setting wasn’t part of my life at this point, although I was excited about starting kindergarten, even though I was ‘retiring’ from being taken care of at home by my parents. The ‘retirements’ continued to advance me to the next stages in life. ‘Retired’ from grade school to middle school, ‘retired’ from middle school to high school.‘Retired’ from high school to college and moving out of my parents’ home. And ‘Retired’ from college to starting a career.

Adult life leads us to more goals, personal and professional development, and looking forward to the next phase. Getting married, raising kids, saving for ‘retirement’. Its interesting how we focus on our work-lives as the primary ‘retirement’ yet when the final day closes, and you achieved ‘retirement’, the next phase begins.

There was so much focus on how we are living our lives in ‘retirement’. There are limitations at all phases in our lives which allow us to adapt and change. I may not be exactly certain what ‘retirement’ will bring in this phase, but it will no doubt be something to look forward to!

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