DAY ONE: Retired (4 minutes to read)

The title says it all - Today, August 1, 2024 - my first day with "retired" in my LinkedIn profile. I have had so many discussions over the last week with so many people and it seems to be a subject that interests people a lot - How does it feel, what are you going to do, and people seem to be interested in hearing your thoughts as you go through it. I am going to try and do that - give you a bit of a glimpse into what it is like to go through this.

To begin with, it is important to know that I was not "retired" by anybody - this was entirely my decision and the timing is my own. I think that allows me to enter into this process without any resentment and with a very good feeling that the time is right. I was treated extremely well by the company i worked with for 24 years (Wahl Clipper Corporation), and this past week has been a non-stop series of events allowing us to express our mutual admiration and respect to each other.

As a quick summary, I have feelings of elation, curiosity, sadness, and for some aspects, I am incredulous.

Let me explain. Elation is the simple one - I am going to be 65 years old this year so 2024 has been a target in my mind for many years - at times it seemed it was so far away it would never get here. I made it to the finish line and that is an unbelievably good feeling - a task completed.

Curiosity comes from the perspective of "how am i going to react". I'm usually very calculated, matter of fact, and logical about how i approach my career. I don't spend a lot of time on introspection as I was raised by a stiff upper lip Englishman who didn't spend a lot of time navel-gazing - he would just go on with the job at hand. In this case, I am more interested and curious than I usually am about how I am going to react. The biggest thing I am interested in is where my mental energy will go. I was someone in my career who was literally married to my company and the events surrounding it. I was never far from my phone, and when not on the phone or in meetings, what I call the Wahl Reality TV show was running 24/7 in my brain. This was a reality show i would stack up against any on TV now - it had drama, tragedy, challenges, humour and the best part was that it was 24/7 - it never stopped!! I am curious as to what happens with all that mental energy when my subscription to that channel runs out.

Sadness comes from leaving the people at Wahl. I am incredibly biased but what a great team of just "real good people" I am leaving. A lot of companies claim to be so close as to call each other family - we had a lot of that at Wahl. As much as people say "let's stay in touch" and intentions are good, the simple fact is that we will not see each other as much and i will miss them terribly.

The last emotion I listed was "incredulity". This was a surprise and it hit me today. I never have to get a job again. Are you kidding me?? I really can't wrap my head around this one - I don't have to go to work ever again!!! By the way, I probably enjoyed my job as much as anyone but like most of us, I went there every day because they paid me to do so. I don't have to do that ever again for the rest of my life? Think about that and maybe you will understand why that seems so surreal to me.

In closing, the most frequent question is "what are you going to do". Well, I did some of that today. I went golfing with two of my closest friends and for the first time ever in my working career, I left my phone in the car. I did find myself reaching for it several times during the game out of habit, but it was nowhere to be found which was GREAT! (Thanks to my wife for the idea!). Some of you know I became a Grandfather this year so a lot of time will be spent with my Granddaughter and the rest of my family.

Finally, perhaps an outlet for that mental energy I mentioned earlier will be writing. I have been incredibly lucky to have learned so much over 43 years and I have always enjoyed sharing those learnings so that others can benefit as well. ?I was given this great gift of learnings. I will share wherever I can help people. This can take many forms and I will probably dabble in many of them.

Future articles will include updates on the retirement journey – I think that will be relevant for a short while.? Outside of that, I plan to discuss how I learned some of the most powerful lessons:

·?????? The power of respect

·?????? The Better you are, the less you have to say

·?????? The compound interest power of learning

·?????? Humour in the work environment (I might even include a couple of stories ??)

·?????? Being human in a corporate world that sometimes demands humanity takes a back seat

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That gives you a bit of a flavour for what is coming – if you managed to stay with this article for this long, thank you, I appreciate it very much.?