One of my friends recently asked how I like the above. The question bothered me. I don’t see myself as retired, do I? How does one decide this? Like so many words, it has multiple meanings.
- The uber one, where you aren’t working at all any more. You take your pension, travel, relax;
- You’ve stopped doing one career, from which you are now retired, and started another one;
- You just left the party and retired to your home for the night;
- You’re drawing on your retirement money, but you’re still working. Maybe you’re using it to fund some venture.
Well, you get the idea. There are loads of ways to ‘retire.’ I see myself as doing the last one. I’ve stopped doing my most recent money-making venture – massage therapy – and am now using my retirement monies to fund that most precious of commodities – time. Time to turn myself into a published novelist. It’s as if I’ve given myself a grant – a writing fellowship.
It does mean that I have more time for music and exercise. More time for friends. More time to think. Mostly, yes, it’s really nice, because I’m not trying to juggle quite so much. But I’m also putting a lot of pressure on myself to finish writing projects.
The hardest part of this kind of mental work without deadlines is self-discipline. Some people do it easily, but a lot of people don’t. I’m maybe somewhere in the middle. Somewhat disciplined, but nothing like some writers who claim that they get up in the morning and get to work and put in six to eight hours between all of the different aspects of the profession. If I get in four or five hours in a day, I’m doing well.
But am I retired-retired? Uber retired? I don’t let myself think of it that way, because once I do, that writing fellowship will go down the tubes. For now, I’ve simply started the career I’ve wanted for many years: novelist. That said, Songbird, my very first novel, is on its way. It’s ready for beta readers and I may put it up a few places and see what comes of it.
How about you? Are you uber-retired? Do you want to be? Will you keep on in the same profession forever? Do you have a passion you’d like to devote more time to?