Retire Sooner

Just a few hours into retirement and already have a nagging feeling that I should’ve done this sooner.

I don’t mean by sooner that I should’ve announced retirement and started posting photos for the grandkids. I mean that I should’ve looked at what was keeping me from exploring even the idea of retiring sooner rather than later.

Here’s what I’ve scratched up so far:

I think that I thought ‘retirement’ was a set time stage in one’s life rather than a mindset stage in one’s life.
Sort of like, when I get too old to work at a high level, then it’s time to retire. But, if you give it some thought, this sort of attitude really kind of sucks. Now that I’m past my prime and too old to thoroughly enjoy the things I’ve worked so hard to perhaps accomplish, now is the time to retire?

Contemplating this line of reasoning, I should have at least made a decision to retire earlier rather than wait it out to term. I should’ve at least added the addendum to my truest goal to retire by defining the age range to 45 or 50. Otherwise, I may reach my unstated goal of retirement without the satisfaction of doing what I intended to do during the ‘retirement’ time phase.

Here’s a list of some other thoughts that may deserve further exploration:

I can’t afford to retire yet.

Does retirement mean that I will no longer be undertaking any economic activities?

What if the definition of “retire” meant to simply put on new tires?

What if my definition of “work” is wrong?

What if my definition of “work” has been wrong since I first learned the definition of “work”?

What would I do if I had one more opportunity to reinvent what I do?

Does one ever actually run out of opportunities to reinvent what one does?

If I was dying, would I live like it?

And if I did, what would that look like?

Does the possibility of failing in retirement keep me tied to the reality of possibly failing at work?

If I fail at work, will I never retire?