Before I embark on describing my journey, its worth reviewing what other people’s journeys have looked like to see what I can learn from them. One of my big influences has been Fritz Gilbert who after 33 years in corporate life set up The Retirement Manifesto. His aim is to educate others through the retirement journey. He also gets inspiration from others and knocks out about one blog per week.

One theme he refers to regularly is the Four Stages of Retirement. Different people have come up with a different number of phases, but in the interests of simplicity I’ll stick with the four. They work for me anyway.

The Four Stages was actually an idea expressed by Riley Moynes in a TEDx talk which you can find here. It’s fascinating viewing and has really helped me internalise the emotional rollercoaster of retirement. In short the 4 phases are:

1. The Vacation Stage – having downed tools from work, life is one big holiday. Trips abroad, lounging around on the beach. What could be better? Well, as it turns out most people get bored out of their mind in about a year (if not sooner).
2. The Lost & Loss Stage – With boredom comes the realisation that all your old crutches you leant on at work are gone: you have no identity, no sense of purpose and for some a loss of power (from being in a managerial role). What follows if you don’t snap out of stage 2 is the 3 D’s – Divorce, Depression, Decline, both physical and mental. This retirement lark doesn’t sound like much fun!
3. The Trial & Error Stage – Many retirees get stuck in Stage 2 so feeding the 3 D’s. However, the good news is that it is a ‘choice’ that people make to stay in stage 2, so going back to my reference in my first blog to Maya Angelou, its within ourselves to change our attitude. At the point when you say to yourself ‘I can’t go on like this…’ its the point when you move into Stage 3. Stage 3 is all about seeking out new things and trying to answer the question ‘How can I make my life meaningful again?’
4. The Reinvent & Rewire Stage – this is the stage where you have found that new ‘thing’ that makes you get out of bed, that makes your life have meaning again.

I am not doing the Four Stages concept any great service by skipping over it in a couple of sentences but I didn’t want to labour each stage in this blog. The blog is first and foremost for me to revisit so wanted a brief intro to the idea in one blog, allowing me a more in depth look in subsequent blogs. Suffice to say though that the TEDx talk is well worth watching and offers an overview of what to expect in the coming years.