Protirement Coaching and workshops
Working in the traditional retirement part of life can be the most fulfilling and meaningful stage of life.
Protirement is the time between moving from your formal career and really retiring. Depending on health, wellbeing and when you choose to conclude your more formal career, that could be 20, 30 or more years.
The term Protirement was coined by Frederic Hudson in 1961 to define a new era of life – to begin anew.
This is a time of winding down, but not stopping, a time of working on something with meaning to you. You may consider returning to study. Larrie also defines Protirement as getting out of bed and putting on your runners, rather than your slippers as you might do in retirement.
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When the aged pension and retirement were first introduced, our life expectancy wasn’t nearly as long as it is now. In reality, we may be living about a third of our lives after the official retirement age.
When you love what you do, there is possibly no inclination to formally retire. And why should there be? We only retire from what we don’t want to do, we don’t retire from living.
Think about people who often don’t retire - farmers, artists, photographers, chefs, fashion designers, architects, interior designers, graphic designers, writers, coaches, consultants environmentalists, scientists. The list is long... The reality is that anyone can keep working well beyond traditional retirement age if they are in control of the way they want to work and are healthy in body and mind. Even people in physical careers can change the way they work with a lateral thinking approach.
Many are lamenting that the age of retirement is getting further away. That only happens if you don’t like your work. If you’re lamenting the age of retirement getting further away, perhaps now is the time to look at new options.
It’s not about working all the time. It’s about discovering your style of balance.
At this stage of your life, you still have much to contribute, created from many decades of living experience and knowledge. The opportunity now is to let go of the ego, to live from the essence of who you really are, and to share your talents, knowledge and wisdom with others. At the same time you can create a meaningful and purposeful time in your life.
Yes, on your agenda, there will probably be travelling, internationally or within your country. There will probably be sport or gardening and volunteering on many levels. There may even be a Protirement portfolio. Perhaps one of those may become income generating, such as consulting, coaching or mentoring in a field in which you have developed decades of experience.
Perhaps you have a plan to use your talents and gifts in a fee or free environment or to develop a leisure activity that you have been nurturing in the background whilst still working. Examples may be art, music. running, cycling, writing. This might be the time when you enrol to get a Degree in your area of interest. Of course all, or any of these, can form part of a protirement life, but what else would you love to do?
You can build all the wonderful aspects of retirement into your life at any stage… travel, relaxation, contribution, creativity. As you get older, simply adjust the time you attribute to each area to suit you. Be the expert in your own life. Put yourself in the driver’s seat. Don’t simply follow the crowd. They may be heading somewhere you don’t want to go. Create your own life.
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“The purpose of life is to discover your talents and gifts; the meaning comes when you share those talents and gifts.”