Reprinted exactly as printed in "The Mercury" newspaper
According to a recent article
in this paper, “Talking Point: Retirement blows Sunday clouds away”,
work is evil or bad. It has to be endured until
you retire and then suddenly you have choices about you do. When retired you
can choose to what do. And you only do what you enjoy. Retirement contrasts
with your working life when you always have to do what you don’t want to do.
It is not the way I have lived
my life. My life as a working and retired person. I worked for forty years and
about a year ago I suddenly and abruptly entered retirement land.
I think of work as a stage I
was going through. My life began with a stage of pre-school life followed by a
stage when I was a student. Both of these stages came and went. I never looked back
on either stage as being perfect and as something I long to return to forever.
When at Uni I never dreamed wistfully of my years at primary school and wished
I could return. I thought one stage had ended and had been replaced by another.
I took the same attitudes, friends and beliefs from one stage to the next. I
was the same person doing different things. Different challenges, goals and
activities.
My working life. What can one
say? I never hated, dreaded or despised it. I never sat around dreaming of
retirement. I just tried to do my best. I always tried to learn. To know my
subject better. I always tied to relate better to the people I encountered. To
get to know the people better. I tried
to get pleasure from it. Or to find out why I wasn’t getting pleasure from it.
I confess I had bad days and good
days. I had times when I succeeded. Times when I achieved my goals. Times when
I failed. Times I was proud. Times I was embarrassed. Times I thought about
changing jobs. Times I loved my job. I ran the full gamut of experiences. In
fact I could write a book about my life working. You couldn’t separate my work
from me. It was my life. My life would not have existed without work. I can’t
imagine my life without working.
About a year ago I suddenly
retired. It was unplanned and unprepared for. It was a different stage I had
entered. It was not days of continuous bliss. It was not a time of sadness
either. It was a different stage I had
entered. A lot of the things I did were
the same. I was the same person. I believed and behaved the same. I reacted
with people I met the same. I continued my interest in gardening, sport, writing
and my family. In fact playing tennis some evenings, people have been surprised
I am retired. They have given me a slightly strange disbelieving look. Which
sort of proves I am the same person.
Since retirement I have
experienced various emotions. They have been the full range of emotions and
strangely they have been exactly the same emotions I experienced when working.
Though now, if I disappointed, it is more likely to be with the choices on the
menu in the cafe.
I have not celebrated my
retirement. I have never spent time wishing I was back where I used to be. I
have just accepted everything I have been dealt and got on with it.
When you are retired one thing
that happens is you don’t get days off. You don’t look forward to the holidays
or the weekends. All days are of the same importance. There are no special days
to look forward to. And you are not allowed bad days[i]. You are not allowed a day when everything goes wrong. A day
when you can rale about life, the traffic, the crowds, the receptionist, the
checkout chicks and telephone marketers.
If you are having a bad day there is no one to criticise. Nobody to
blame. You can’t go home and throw darts at a picture of your boss. You can’t
get on Facebook and rent your spleen about management and their stupid decisions.
Many people don’t retire.
Artists, musicians, writers, poets and people who have an occupation which is
more than just a job, never retire. Rupert Murdoch is working many years past
the age at which he could financially retire.
This is great. I love a businessman who enjoys his job so much he
continues. This is the way I would prefer everybody to be aiming. Aim for an
occupation where you don’t want to retire. Aim for a career that doesn’t bind
you or restrict you. A career where retirement is not thought about. This is
what you should aim for.
And back to the important
issue. Can you do what you want when you retire? Of course not. I am a social
animal. Everything I do involves other
people. Everytime I do something involving other people I must consult with
them. I must consider their feelings, attitudes or them. Now that I am retired
I have not suddenly become an island that exists without needing or helping
other people. In fact the opposite could be true.
I know retired people who become more engaged
more connected. One way is via doing voluntary work.
A large number of retired people
do volunteer work. Do voluntary work and you can regain a few of the things you
lose when you retire. You belong to an organization that has a goal. You have a
reason for living. You are responsible for something. You are included in notices, messages,
emails, the tea room and Christmas parties.
It will be noticed if you don’t turn up.
You have somebody to talk to about good days and bad days.
The idea that adult life consists
of two completely separate and distinct halves is a dangerous myth. The
attitude that work is to be endured until you retire is very dangerous. The
attitude that retirement is a reward and consists of unbridled bliss is very
dangerous. For both working people and retired people.
For working people the attitude
is that work is to be endured and consists of putting up with your boss,
boredom and enslavement. A period of servitude will eventually be followed by a
reward. This myth stops people from living
their lives in the moment. It is as
distorting of the truth as the myth that a man in a sleigh flies the earth
delivering presents.
For the retired person the myth
is that you have reached it. You are now in paradise. You are going to enjoy
everyday and everything. It is a
dangerous belief. Because reality will intervene. One day you will realise that
your life does not match the perfect image that you were told about. And what
happens when there is a difference between reality and the myth in your head?
That is the question.
Alan Carlton is a former Hobart
dentist. He was retired medically in October 2015. He know spends some of his time running,
playing tennis, gardening, with his family and writing for his blogs.
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