Will retire if……………………….

Will Retire If.......

Piled up a long list of "Things to do" post retirement??

Tangled between Purpose and Responsibilities?

When to retire for attaining post retirement wish-list?

On a rainy evening with a nice Chai cup in hand, sitting near the window, praising & admiring the nice weather, felt if I could do this every day.‘My Brain’ immediately responded, If I can have hundreds of thousands of dollars, I will retire and stay peacefully.

How many times have we heard this within in our surroundings? Or how many times have we said this to others. Quite honestly, how many times do we really mean this. Its very normal to fantasize these notions of living a post retirement life at a young age.

I have also said this numerous times in my life. However, like most, the target number is a changing goal post. With every major event in my life, invariably the goal changed, either due to additional priorities or ever-rising aspirations. So, what is the magical number which will give us the confidence to hang up the boots?

Well, I wonder if magic would work here.?You meet 10 people;?you will get 10 formulas to calculate.

All of them may be right, everyone will be doing the right calculation for themselves in the hope of living the desired life post retirement.

But is that the only way to look at it?

PAY vs PURPOSE?

Let us think it this way... The sole purpose of our existence is the freedom to do what we want. Despite all our efforts we are unable to attain it since we are trapped from every side. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were to remove the numbers from the equation and replace it with your freedom, then!

Freedom to live, free to live the life we want. But how many of us know what to do?

There are two aspects of it:?purpose & passion. Its most essential to have a definite purpose in life. Else its bound to be an endless race with no endpoint.

Let’s imagine, you are on a motorway, you started driving and kept on driving. At some point you ran out of fuel and stopped. Wherever you stopped, that eventually became your destination. The destination wasn’t bad enough but was that the place where you wanted to reach? If yes then GREAT!

Similarly, in life we all are on a motorway (education, jobs, business, family etc) that’s has kept us moving (promotion, growth, family extensions etc). Eventually we run out of fuel (ageing, health, life events). We reached somewhere (may be higher designated corporate professional, successful entrepreneur, or loving family). Though the destination is great but, may be its time to think is this what we wanted???You might discover, the race is endless unless you have definite Purpose for your existence.??Most of the things we end up doing is due to peer pressure and social norms. But life is way beyond just achieving things to prove others. Please don’t limit a life in merely out- doing, out-proving, out-performing others. You need to define a purpose for yourself.

Now, the most common question: I do not know what my passion is or how do I find out.???????????

Get on board to discover your passion, trust me it’s not difficult to find out. I will suggest start paying attention to any task you perform. To the least, start feeling the task, try as much as you can, to live in that moment. Start feeling the connection of your mind, body and soul with every task at hand. Don’t just rush to finish and move on. Experience it from your soul.

There are just too many wonderful moments to experience, but because we are in rush, we never paid attention to this.

For example, try this in your next meal, when you eat, feel every fragrance, feel every bite, every juice, feel every chew. Soon you will start appreciating the art & science of cooking.?

Similarly, When you play with your kid next time, experience the joy in every movement of your kid. The smile, the jump, the energy, the excitement, of the kid, instead of?just?performing the “duty” of spending the time with them.

Any task that has to be accomplished to be done with complete mindfulness. Do it with the same rigor?and honesty for just 21 days. You will start noticing a change in your outlook. Soon, you will discover the things which you overlooked but mattered to you.

Here is a simple formula in mind, this will help you discover yourself, your purpose, your passion and ultimately the freedom of living life your way.

You need to?H.E.L.P yourself:

H.?Honesty: be honest to yourself. Anything you want to do, don’t do it for others. It’s a self-discovering process and not a task to prove anyone.

E.?Experience &?Explore every bit. Each moment will enrich your experience and motivate you to keep exploring

L.?fall in?Love with it. Simple and straight, love is the purest form of human emotion. Fall in love with your life purpose

P.?Practice, be consistent and keep practicing. It’s not a one-time magic.?

Once you discover your passion you will make time for it. This will help you look beyond mundane life routine. With the constant practice, slowly but steadily you will progress to attain the freedom to do what you always wanted to do, while continue to honor your other responsibilities. Please note freedom does not mean being irresponsible.

When you become free, you don’t need to retire. Just continue with what you are doing but re-direct your focus & energy onto your passion.?Balance your life, with purpose (your passion) and responsibility (your work) i.e balancing your work life.?This will help keep your purpose & responsibilities in co-existence. Therefore, you don’t need a number to retire to experience the life you always wanted.?

So let’s bust the mythical debate where every time we wish do to something, ‘the brain’ suggests ‘not now’, lets do it after retirement. And every time, we ask ‘the brain’ when to retire, we are cited a bank balance with a reminder that you don’t have enough in account to retire now. So, let’s untangle, choose ‘freedom to live’ over ‘retirement’, and ‘retirement’ over ‘bank balance’. Just H.E.L.P. yourself !