Stop Using The Word Retirement

Retirement - What does this word mean to you? If we look up the words retire, retired, retirement, in the Webster's Dictionary, the meaning is: to withdraw, give up, retreat, be hidden in seclusion, and to give up on one's position. Due to the bombardment of Social Security issues through the national news media, just about everyone 45 and up, over the last several months, has been thinking about retirement. An unsettling statistic that I heard was that over 40% of baby boomers will not have the income to sustain their retirement. My experience with retirement and use of the word has been through my parents who have retired and have been living out their retirement in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas for the last 25 years. After a long 30 year career with a Fortune 50 company, my dad was ready to give up his 8 to 5 position and settle into retirement. As a fifty-something year old, career-tossed man, I am unable to say that the same is likely to happen for me. So what are my choices? Is retirement merely about financial scarcity, resignation and diminution of life? The first wave of baby boomers will turn 60 in 2006. The largest, most demanding, and most examined generation in history is already facing up to a future that looks nothing like our parents' second half of life. But if you think about it, neither did the first half resemble their parents. Since retirement age cannot or will not look or mean the same for me as it did with my parents. I'm making the choice to embrace the second wind I'm getting, in order for the next 30 years to be more exciting, more energetic and more inspiring than the former years. Thanks to the medical advances and information about health, baby boomers can expect to live long lives. So it's no wonder that many of us are looking for direction to make the extra years integrated and meaningful. Watch for a virtual explosion of classes, programs, books, and discussions on innovative ways to celebrate life all the way through. I personally do not want to withdraw, hide or even retreat in my second half of my life. That begins with CHOICE. I'm calling on an entire generation to join with me to choose to stop using the word "retirement" and start using words like "graduation" or "transition", "renaissance" or "fulfillment", which better frame the concluding years. I propose that we not define ourselves by limitation, but by our ability to make new discoveries about ourselves and to renew our minds by saying "I'm too young to retire!!!" -------------------------------------------------- Randy Gaulding has been empowering retired professionals to expand their future and develop their personal effectiveness. WHY some people are discovering What's Next. FREE course. "Rewire Don't Retire" Click Now ==> www.career-builder-retirement.com/ecourse.htm ** Attn Ezine editors / Site Owners ** Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above. If you need additional articles, check out my article archive for fresh, new content you can use on your website or in your ezine - FREE! http://www.coachingtexas.com If you do use the material please send us a note so we can take a look. Thanks.