Down Home: Listen to Dalton Roberts’ podcast on what he learned from Al Gore, Jr.
A lady wrote, “How did you retire from politics so smoothly and start writing and playing your music? I have been trying to retire for years, and every time I get close something makes me just keep on working.”
Maybe retirement is easy for some people but I think most Americans have difficulties making that final decision. Part of the reason is indirectly reflected in this personal note. She doesn’t see that my work after leaving a clock-punching job can really be a new career. So the first suggestion I would make to a person contemplating retirement is to consider your retirement activities as your new career. Most of us have several new careers in our lives.
It may sound strange to someone who considers a job to be something you go to in the morning and come home from at the end of the day, but work you do on your own, with no supervisor, can be just as meaningful as work where you clock in. Often it is more meaningful.
The thing that makes this person “just keep on working” may be what Naman Crowe calls “the grazing herd.” Meaning, of course, the opinions held by the masses of unthinking people. Sometimes those attitudes are operating just below the surface of consciousness, but the fact remains that they are operating and influencing our behavior and decisions. If a “job” means to a grazing herder reporting to a supervisor for duty, then working on your own at those things of interest to you will not be well-respected.
Of all the things we should respect, those interests that have remained constant in our mind and soul throughout our lives are most deserving of our respect and pursuit.
They almost always are an outllow from our talents. Emerson said our callings are our talents, and what could possibly be more deserving of our respect than our callings?
You may say, “But my talents will never make me a retirement income, and I need a little extra money to survive.” By all means do those things that interest you and flow out from your talents even if you have to do some uninteresting menial job to survive. I would gladly be a greeter in a store to make it possible to play my guitar, write songs and perform. Follow your bliss and your passion, for that is what will keep you young and sufficiently interested in life to keep on living. The happy brain juices of seratonin and dopamine have more to do with your heart continuing to beat than any prescription or vitamin.
Another friend who was initially insecure about retiring later made a decision and began doing both paid work and volunteer work. She laughingly said, “I have never been happier or had less.”
I wrote her. “I am proud of your for finding the courage to turn loose. Turning loose violates the inherent human instinct to hang onto our little inner tubes until we can get our arm around bigger ones. Give yourself time to unwind. There are more coiled springs inside you than you know. You will feel them turning loose for a long time and then, you will be free.”
Retirement is always a very personal decision, but getting free from the inner coiled springs of the grazing herd is a worthy goal.
Contact Dalton Roberts at DownhomeP@aol.com