Retirement was once seen as a life phase filled with leisure and rest after your career ended.
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This worked for previous generations, when average life spans were 55, but today as we live longer and many see their 100th birthday, retirement thinking needs an upgrade.
Baby boomers want more from life after work and many are not happy with simply fading into the background to play golf and tend to the garden.
When work ends, so too does having a purpose, a community of colleagues, the mental challenges work brings and the identity you once gained from your job.
Many don't want this to end, but also don't want to maintain their stressful full-time career life.
At the core of this new way of life is the need to define a new purpose for life after work.
Purpose comes from within. It's bigger than your job and it's been described as 'your big why' or 'your reason for existence'.
Put simply, having purpose gives you a motivating reason to get out of bed each morning.
Without purpose, life has little meaning and mental health risks like boredom and depression increase. With purpose your life has an innate motivation, challenge and careers are replaced with something new.
Retire on Purpose is a learning business created by TEDx speaker and coach of 20 years, Nick Freedman, who saw a need to support people to better plan and navigate the retirement journey.
Nick says that people will find their purpose at the intersection of three things: passions (what a person enjoys doing), values (what a person says is important) and emotions (how a person feels when they're in the zone).
It's a journey to uncover it and his learning program, My Game Plan, empowers over-50s to create a holistic plan for their retirement with purpose at the centre.
He's currently collating life stories from people who want to co-author a book on this new way of retiring (with purpose).
If you have plenty of fire in your belly and believe that retirement should be about exploration of new possibilities, you may want to look into joining the co-author team.
Nick Freedman runs Retire on Purpose to give retirees sound advice. Find out more at www.retireonpurpose.co.
Therese Murray
Wordsmith. Senior journalist. Editor. I have a proven track record in helping people and communities solve their problems. My career is all about telling stories.
Wordsmith. Senior journalist. Editor. I have a proven track record in helping people and communities solve their problems. My career is all about telling stories.
