Retirement: The ‘Third Age’ is a Second Chance at Being Who YOU Want to Be!

“Please remove my son’s application from this program. He will be going to university,” a father said to me after I had presented information to parents whose high-school-aged children had expressed an interest in going into the trades as a career. My enthusiasm turned to sadness as I leafed through the pile of applications in search of the student’s name. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual story. Many of us, including me, were, dare I say, “railroaded” into a career that someone else chose for us. Maybe it was a parent, a teacher, a counsellor, or a friend, typically under the guise of “having our best intentions at heart” in trying to help us find our way in the world. For some, their well-meaning advice worked out eventually, for others not so much.

For those of us in the “not so much” category, fear not! You now have a second chance to choose a career for YOU in your retirement years.

Thanks to medical and scientific advances, and an abundance of information on longevity, we could have 20 to 25 years of productive life after we retire. Researchers often classify these additional years as the Third Age (age 60+ years) providing a chance for a new or different career after our first career or careers.

Interestingly, it was not long ago that people were not expected to live much beyond the Second Age (age 30 – 60, typically labelled our productive and family years), meaning there is now plenty of time to rekindle the career dreams of our childhood or try something completely different.

A recent article in Forbes Magazine by Ken Dychtwald and Bob Morrison categorizes the scope of the potential of life in the Third Age as “enormous and unprecedented.”? Wow! Think of the opportunities! It is not the end, but the beginning of another fascinating phase of your life where you get to choose to live life as who YOU want to be!

Ironically, the word “retire” comes from the French word “retirer,” the act of retreating, falling back, going away. For anyone approaching retirement or already into their retirement years, “going away” conjures up a vision of the doors of life slamming shut never to open again. Nothing is further from the truth!

Think of the word retirement as “re-tire-ment”: putting a new set of wheels on your life. How you choose to spend your retirement years, or the Third Age, is as unique to you as your signature, with choices vast and varied. Many of my friends, including me, have re-invented themselves in their Third Age, doing what brings them joy and what they are passionate about.

I have three words to say about how to build your happy and fulfilling retirement: plan, plan, plan. Researchers also tell us that the secret sauce for a happy and fulfilling retirement is ensuring your activities, whether they are paid work or unpaid volunteer pursuits, include connection and purpose.

It is never too early or too late to start living life and being who YOU want to be! If you are looking for direction and a starting point, I am here to help you get that ball rolling.

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Lana Bullough is a Certified Facilitator and Coach for Retire to the Life You Design?