Retired and MIA

We’re out here by the millions, professionals who have hung up our skates. Some of us live life large, some live life small. Some opulently, some need to be frugal, but for most of us, life is better than when we were chained in the galleys. Or so it would seem.

Some garden, some restore 1973 Harleys, some travel, some read. And some nap. By and large, it’s a great life. But for many, something’s missing.

And that something is the challenge of problem-solving. Most of us, most of the time, when we were in practice, were solving problems. And we were good at it.

We were good at it, especially in the latter years of our professional careers, because we had come to know ourselves and our skill sets. We were comfortable with our expertise, we knew we served our clients well, and felt the satisfaction that comes with excellence. We took on big challenges, we rubbed shoulders confidently with big colleagues and with competitors of excellence, we stood tall. We showed the young pups how to excel, too.

And now we glue model airplanes together or meet all the other old buzzards for coffee every morning at ten, sharp.

For many retired professionals, there’s a quiet, indistinct sense of diminishment.

Diminishment because we are no longer engaging at the tip of the spear, employing our giftedness, our knowledge, our finely-honed instincts. We’re not creating big things, we’re not leading in our fields, as we had been accustomed to do.

Ancient societies had a fix for this. They had elders who sat in the city gates and shared wisdom with those who came to them. Tradesmen, craftsmen, and guildsmen didn’t retire, they just slowed down and became advisors to the young. To the end of your days, or at least so long as you had good health, you enjoyed the satisfaction of relevance.

We need not become irrelevant. While our minds are good and our instincts still sharp, we have much to give. Whether it’s lending our wisdom to a volunteer organization, spearheading an environmental project, or working with other retirees on a study about the future of our profession, the talents and experience we’ve acquired can do so much good, and in return, we receive the satisfaction of being relevant.

Let’s not waste our wealth of talent, learning, experience and earned instincts. The world needs us. And we need the world.