Find Your Identity After Retirement
Think about how you respond to the question “Tell me about yourself?” Whether you’re at a party, a networking event, a date, or any other gathering, many people respond with their job. They’re a banker or a lawyer or a doctor or a firefighter. For many of us, work is a major part of our identities.
That makes a lot of sense. After all, you dedicate a lot of your life to your work. There’s a good chance you studied in school to get the job you have. You trained for years with the goal of having your job. Then you worked at it for decades. It’s only natural that it becomes a huge part of who you are. It’s not just how you introduce yourself at parties, it’s also how you see yourself as a person.
What does that mean when you retire?
Establishing a retirement identity is tough. Who are you without your work? It’s a question many recent retirees have trouble with.
Your Life After Work
There’s a lot to adjust to when you retire, from the lack of a consistent schedule to the changes to how you manage your money. Since so much is happening all at once, a lot of people don’t give much thought to their identity. However, how you identify is important.
It can help to think about what you’re going to do in retirement before you actually retire. If you’re in a position where you can plan your retirement and know when you’ll be leaving work, spend some time thinking about what you’re going to do when the 9-to-5 no longer controls your day. This will help you in many ways.
Make a New Schedule
One of the reasons people feel lost in retirement is because their days are not structured. We’re all used to certain routines and, when those go away, it’s tough. Planning for your retirement gives you meaning, in a way. It gives you a reason to wake up at a certain time, to get dressed, to go outside, to enjoy yourself. When you have meaning in your life, you don’t spend as much time worried about your place in the world, so you won’t care as much about how you identify. Plus, your retirement identity can be based on what you’re doing now, rather than the job you used to have.
Find Your Passions
Thinking about your retirement before it happens also gives you the opportunity to find your true passions. Sitting and trying to come up with what you are going to do with the rest of your life can feel overwhelming at first. That’s why it’s good to sit with it for a while. This gives you the time to really find what you’d like to do and that gives your life meaning.
Think about what makes you happy. What hobbies do you enjoy? What books, TV shows, or movies are you more interested in? What have you always wanted to do, but didn’t have time for? Write everything down and look for patterns. The things that leap out to you will show you what your passions are. You can then use this to plan your life and give your life more meaning. You won’t be able to introduce as “a project manager” or “a real estate agent” anymore, but you will be able to say that you’re a golfer, a traveler, a gardener, or anything else that brings you joy.
Feel Needed
One of the best ways to overcome feeling lost or confused into retirement is put yourself in situations where you feel needed or something. For instance, if you do volunteer work, that’s a way to give yourself purpose. So is coaching your grandchild’s baseball team or helping out in your community.
Personal relationships also give you meaning. Retirement often means spending more time with your children or grandchildren or enjoying the company of your spouse or partner. However, these are far from the only relationships that matter. That’s another advantage of taking up new activities in retirement. When you’re rock climbing or taking dance lessons or being a part of a cooking class, you’ll meet other people who have the same interests as you. This can help you forge new meaningful relationships that give you a sense of meaning and help you find your place in the world.
Finding the right meaning will help you establish a new retirement identity that fits with who you are today.
