Never Retire

About 17 years ago, after a long and very fulfilling career in healthcare leadership, I chose to retire. I was set up well for retirement and was looking forward to some hard-earned leisure time, so I stocked up my Inspirational Vehicle (a small motorhome), grabbed my digital camera, and took off across America the Beautiful, traveling, photographing, experiencing, and enjoying the retired life. From time to time I’d park my motorhome in strategic locations and fly home to Texas for awhile, then return to the road for more adventures.

That lasted about 7 months.

I figured out pretty quickly that as fun and interesting as it was, the life of leisure just wasn’t for me. I needed to DO something beyond visiting museums, historic sites, and national parks. I needed to keep leveraging my experience and skills and put my brilliant mind (ha!) to use.

So I “unretired,” launched a number of businesses, and threw myself back into working, leading, consulting, brainstorming, writing, and speaking. 17 years later, I’m still going strong, and still loving it! Oh I still travel, explore, and take a lot of pictures. But that’s not all I do. I stay busy—with my businesses and hobbies, I stay active—physically and mentally, and I stay connected—to friends, colleagues, and the happenings of the world. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I was delighted to stumble across an excellent article on TED.com the other day that supports my take on retirement. The article was actually excerpted from the book by neuroscientist and cognitive psychologist Daniel J. Levitin, Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of our Lives. Levitin answers the question “What is the ideal age to retire?” with one word: “Never.” He then goes on to say, 

“Even if you’re physically impaired, it’s best to keep working, either in a job or as a volunteer… Too much time spent with no purpose is associated with unhappiness. Stay busy! But not with busy- work or trivial pursuits, but with meaningful activities. Economists have coined the term unretirement to describe the hordes of people who retire, find they don’t like it, and go back to work.”

Take it from someone who has done just that—unretirement is much, MUCH better than retirement. So, never retire!