When you envision retirement, you probably picture long days on the golf course, spoiling the grandkids or jet-setting off to grand destinations. And, hopefully, if you’ve managed to save enough and taken steps to maintain your health, you’ll be able to enjoy all of these great things later in your life.
Unfortunately, retirement isn’t all happy hours and endless holidays, though. Many people go through four phases of retirement, according to Dr. Riley Moynes, author of The Four Phases of Retirement: What to Expect When You’re Retiring.
Two of those phases are not so positive, but the good news is that you can overcome the negative if you understand what to expect and know how to turn things around.
Dr Moynes describes feeling lost as the second stage of retirement, which many people enter after getting bored with the first stage — the honeymoon period they experience after leaving the workforce. The honeymoon period involves doing the activities you always dreamed of but never had the time. It can feel like a permanent vacation, but eventually, you get bored and don’t know what to do.
For many retirees, work provides a sense of purpose and social connections, which explains why almost one in three retirees end up suffering from depression, per one study. Feelings of sadness can hit once you realize that the things you thought would sustain your interest for the rest of your life don’t cut it as a work replacement.
The good news is that you don’t have to live with unhappiness if you aren’t sure what to do with your time and energy. You have many options to turn things around, from going back to work in some capacity to starting a business to volunteering or becoming involved in political causes you care about.
You’ll have to make a conscious plan for what you want the rest of your life to look like, but doing that can enable you to draw a roadmap out of the wilderness so retirement becomes enjoyable again.
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The experimentation phase is another identified by Dr. Moynes and comes after feeling lost and without purpose. At this point, you’ll likely be doing all the things mentioned above — trying out some ways to fill your days and find meaning.
