Hey friend, welcome back to another episode of the Small business started essentials podcasts where I like to cover topics that are sometimes generic, but sometimes personal to me as well.
In this episode, I’m going to talk a little bit about why I’ll never retire. But as I was thinking about this, it sort of got me wondering what retirement is anyway? You know what is retirement? Is it to stop all effective formal sort of work? Just do nothing but poke around all day long or play golf? Mow the yard over and over again? (like my retired neighbor does…don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy, he’s just bored)
I watched my father retire at a very early age because he spent 30 years at a manufacturing plant. And after he officially retired, he officially laid down in bed and stayed there most of the day.
I see some of my neighbors that are in retirement and they spend most of the day trying to figure out what to do with their day. So I certainly don’t want to fall into that trap, but what would I retire from? You know:
• learning?
• Helping people?
• making an impact?
• having influence?
I know that retirement means different things to different people, but I guess for the scope of this episode, we’ll just frame it in the context of ‘officially working’. Now if that meant that I’d never had a job again, that would be one thing. But when you’re self employed, or a soleopreneur, and you have a business, there is no job. But the mindset of the business being a job could still be there. That’s not me. And just as an extra side note, I’m also married to somebody who has the same perspective. She also said ‘I’m never going to retire.’ You know, it’s just she always wants to be involved in either learning or teaching or making an impact one way or another. Whether it’s creating online courses or tutoring people in higher education. So I’m only mentioning this because it’s also a significant source of influence as well.
But some people say they’ll never retire because they need the financial security. They need extra income. They don’t want to rely just on Social Security or pensions that they may have. They want to continually create a source of income. And I get that. I’m not criticizing that. That’s a good goal.
Some people say they’ll never retire because they have a passion for their work. They just don’t want to don’t want to stop doing what they love doing. And that’s me. I can relate to that. That’s a huge reason why I say I’ll never retire.
You know, to some or even a lot of people, the work that they do in their business gives them a sense of purpose and growth and fulfillment. They see themselves as contributing to something meaningful. If you’re involved in a non nonprofit organization, you’ll get a good taste of that.
For some people the concept of continual professional development fuels them to keep going no matter how old they are. They want to keep learning. They want to keep developing. They want to be relevant in their field or in their industry or to the community.
For some just the social interaction is a big factor in why they’d like to continue to do what they do. Some people just fear being isolated from prior connections to networks that they built over the decades.
Having that mental stimulation and staying active and engaged can really help keep the mind to stay sharp and prevent boredom every single day.
But also, if we say we’re going to retire, which means we’re sort of ceasing to be involved in the things we were previously involved in then the impact that we used to have will be gone. The length of our legacy and the footprint on society will be impacted as well.
Now, some…see this retirement time as a time to start over and really dig into their hobbies and interests like never before.
This morning I was scanning some Podcasts on Spotify and came across some shows that exist just as personal projects based on their interests…whether it’s music or history…there’s a lot of those kind of shows. These Shows are just their personal projects that they’re sharing with the world.
Podcasters just having a Show that helps people enjoy what they like to enjoy as well. And that’s great. They’re using their retirement time just like I mentioned before. Staying active…mental stimulation.
But I found that some just fear the concept of retirement for a lot of the reasons that I just mentioned. The fear of the unknown, I guess. I was talking to someone earlier today that said this to me as well.
He’s been so used to working for decades and next year he’s announced that he’s retiring but doesn’t know what to do with himself. He doesn’t want to start a business, so then what? So what about you? What are your thoughts on the topic? Let me know. There’s a link in the show notes to rate the episode and leave a comment. I like hearing from the listeners on what their thoughts and feelings are as well.
Let’s talk soon.


www.tomclairmont.com

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