Are You Mentally Ready for Retirement? Part 2
Rick Davis
Providing career and leadership coaching, mentoring and teaching to firefighters and fire departments. Fire Officer Leadership Academy, author of The Furnace of Leadership Development, member of Maxwell Leadership Team.
Last week’s article asked if you are mentally ready to retire and do you have a purpose beyond your current career? For years I did not give much thought to retirement because I was living my boyhood dream of being a firefighter. Frankly, I believed I would work until I was pried out of the firehouse. That is until 2008 when I read Finishing Well by Bob Buford, a book revolving around the second half of life, our purpose, and what we would do with our lives.
In 2009 as I prepared to enter my first year of the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy, the required reading was Leadership on the Line by Ronald A. Heifitz and Marty Linksy. They wrote of an individual who started working in the mailroom of a large Fortune 500 company after he graduated from college. Years later he retired as the CEO and his career was celebrated at a party. The following Monday he returned to clean out his office and was barely acknowledged by his former colleagues and employees. This sent him into a depression because his identity was tied to his title and career.
I put the book down and asked, “Am I that guy?” Firefighters are known for collecting and trading t-shirts from our respective departments, and I too had my own collection. I went to the closet and counted how many fire department t-shirts were on the shelf. Taking inventory of the stock and how often I wore them, it struck me, “Hey Davis! You’re the guy in the book!” I looked at pictures of myself and guess what? In nearly every photo of me when I was off duty, I was wearing a fire department t-shirt and hat.
I did not throw out those t-shirts, but I decided two things: scale back how often I would wear them and start buying other shirts. Why? Because my identity was wrapped up, immersed, and encased in being a firefighter or more precisely a battalion chief. I was in a great career that I loved, but my eyes were opened to the fact that I was more than a firefighter.
When I accepted the reality that there was more to my identity than being a battalion chief, I determined what my purpose was. That is where Luke 12:48 came into play. “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” There is much I could write about regarding this verse and my life. For now, suffice it to say that my purpose is to impact and transform others through leading, teaching, and coaching. My purpose served me and others in the final years at Loveland Fire Rescue and I carried that into the next phase of my life as an entrepreneur and business owner.
How about you? Are you wrapped up, immersed, and encased in your profession or job title? Do you know what your purpose in life is? If something happened to you today and you had to change careers, would you be mentally successful? Are you psychologically prepared to retire and move on to the next phase of life? Can you carry your purpose beyond your current profession? These are questions you must truthfully answer and not avoid. Otherwise, you may be in for a rough ride down the road.