Retirement is a huge life event which, in fact, unfolds over many years. It can be a challenging period to navigate – feeling both exciting and liberating, yet induce fear and anxiety. If you’re not ready to retire, unretiring can be a great avenue to explore.
So, you may be wondering, what is unretirement? Simply put, it’s rejoining the workforce after traditional retirement age.
Whilst unretirement isn’t for everybody, it has benefits far beyond financial…
5 reasons why unretirement could be a good alternative to retirement
(1) Regained [work-related] activity
The hardest and least expected retirement challenge is often – who am I?
You’ve probably spent over 40 years working hard, refining skills, and gaining a wealth of experience. Along the way you will have created your professional identity. Think about when you meet someone, you’ll probably introduce yourself with some form of reference to your work like “I’m a Doctor” or “I’m a librarian”. It acts as a short-cut, but also provides us with inner pride.
When we retire we typically lose this professional identity. The sense of loss can leave a huge void. Unretiring can help regain or retain work-related identity.
(2) Provides a renewed sense of purpose
Purpose is your why. A sense of purpose gives us reasons for what we want to do. With time and transition, our purpose can change, fade or dilute. Research shows that it has a close link with motivation and our wellbeing. Unretiring can help renew that sense of purpose and energy surrounding it.
(3) Satisfaction and sense of achievement
When you gain a sense of accomplishment you naturally become more engaged and feel pride. This can be so motivating and uplifting.
For some this is achieved through new projects. For others it’s personal improvement like learning new things or setting personal goals. A well-defined unretirement plan can bring much satisfaction and stave boredom.
(4) Regaining structure
I personally found the lack of structure particularly unsettling – I felt like I needed to make a new life plan – I was no longer clear about what I was doing everything for and I was uncomfortable with leisure as the focus of my time. Colin Serlin, founder of The Unretiring
When you unretire, you can determine the structure and shape of your day, week, or month. It’s quite liberating being in control of that!
(5) Social connections
The prospects of social connection that unretiring can bring are far-reaching. Staying connected is important to healthy aging. Unretiring can be a fantastic alternative to traditional retirement. Is it for you?
If you’re wondering about how you could explore what unretirement might look like for you, contact The Unretiring. The Unretiring has designed a Programme to help people to explore the opportunity of unretirement and design a meaningful future.
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