Is there a ‘crisis of meaning’ in retirement?

I recently read an article about why the workplace is facing a ‘crisis of meaning’, and why and how to fix it. It’s a topic thrown around a lot this year with close friends of mine as we recently turned 30. Some of us are beginning to really flourish at work & can start to see our careers taking off, whilst others are beginning to question whether to start over entirely, or are feeling incredibly depressed with the notion of doing their job for the next 40 years, but simply don’t see what they’d do instead…

The article was largely reiterating that finding purpose in one’s job doesn’t have to be the ‘be all and end all’; but rather that your work being meaningful is strongly associated with greater contentment. Whilst this post isn’t meant to probe you to question your working life, there is a noticeable similarity on the meaning of work, that we sometimes have with clients and their retirement. There is the uncomfortable reality of what day to day life is going to look like without work, particularly when work has been a large source of gratification, so we know for some of you this can be incredibly anxiety-inducing. For the first time (pretty much ever) you will be faced with asking yourself questions work has largely been answering for you (or covering your need to ask entirely).

On the surface, it seems easy to conjure up a list of fun things to do when you retire, but imagining an average day, let alone how you’d like to live ‘the rest of your life’ can be hard.

Those of you who have been a long-term client of ours will know these questions are not new, nor are they ones we shy away from asking here at Solomon’s. So here is a small collection of questions I hope some of you begin to entertain before retirement becomes your reality.

• What do you want to spend your time doing?
• What do you enjoy doing?
• What do you want to achieve with your life?
• What makes your life meaningful?
• Think of some people you admire – what do you admire about them?
• What gives your life purpose?
• What makes you feel like you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing?
• What matters to you?
• What values do you think are the most important?
• How would you like people to describe you?

For our next edition of Spotlight we will be covering this topic further, so I would also like to ask those of you who have retired successfully … please share with us how your experience has been and what insights you can offer to those about to reach a similar milestone. You can reach me at jemima@solomonsifa.co.uk