Retire TO, part 2

I find it easier to blame others than to take responsibility for my own actions. Today I am going to take charge of my life, wrote real life friend and retired colleague Ron Dickinson. He’s graciously letting me share those two sentences with you here.

I find Ron’s two lines to be like a Declaration of  Responsibility.

Retirees don’t just stop whatever it is we’re leaving behind at our  jobs, but we’re also starting something new.

Such a strange new chapter of life can actually be kinda scary. We may wonder things like

+Who am I without a job title?

+Where do I go every day?

+What do I do when I get there?

I actually had business cards printed with just my name when I retired. Actually nothing but JOE centered on the card.

It seemed funny at first.

I know someone who sold their business and retired relatively young. This person kept the same office as before, but “just for a little while” to “tie up some loose ends during transition.” The first two weeks, coffee with friends in the morning before they went to work while this new retiree was off to play golf every day was a dream come true. Then the realization hit: the friends were all still working, and the retiree’s golf days were growing lonely. Two years later, the office space was at least still a place to go everyday.

Diana Ross sang one of my favorite questions: “Do you know where you’re going to?”

We don’t just retire from something; we also retire to something.

Let’s pick up right there next time.

Meanwhile, if I could assign homework it’d be the consideration and application of what Ron wrote: Today I am going to take charge of my life.

By the grace of God, let’s.