The BEST of Your Life

John:  “Today is the first day of the BEST of your life.”  I retired last Friday after 41 years of working in the IT field.  That quote was on the card I received from the team I led.  While it is certainly appropriate for retirement, it also rings true in our everyday life.  Every day, we can choose to live our best life, regardless of the changes, circumstances, and chaos around us. 

I’ve been dreaming about retiring and preparing for it for years.  It is a most welcome change.  I’m looking forward to more flexibility, less stress, and no more multi-hour commutes through construction and snowstorms.  I’m excited for Julie and me to have the freedom travel and explore without the restrictions of work – limited vacation days, meeting commitments, and having to cram everything in on the weekends.  I am most looking forward to just being able to spend more time with Julie and the rest of our family.   I’ve already booked my first babysitting gig with our grandson on Friday!

Julie:  Preparing for John’s retirement has been a reminder to us of how critical it is to stay in open and frequent communication as we navigate life. Even the most positive life events can prove to be challenging. Communication is the key to successfully moving forward.

Leading up to John’s retirement, I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that my Energizer Bunny of a hubby would find PLENTY to do to keep him active and vibrant.  Our running list of things that we need to get done around the house has continued to grow with each passing year as family time and other commitments constantly pushed house-related tasks to the bottom of the to-do list.  It will feel great to finally be able to knock off some of those items and enjoy the fruits of our labor. But prioritizing these jobs has been an interesting exercise as we both have our own opinions on which jobs should be tackled first.  By talking it out, we’ve been able to come up with a list we can both live with.

My biggest worry wasn’t about John staying active.  It was about finances.  Turns out it was a big worry for John as well.  Did we save enough?  What about health care?  Do we really need that second car?  Were we actually ready to take this leap?  We talked about our hopes and dreams for retirement, making lists of things we’d like to do or places we’d like to go – could we afford to do them?  We did a deep-dive into our finances, waved the white flag, and called in a professional.  He assured us that yes, we were financially in a position to retire.  While our financial advisor helped to calm our fears, just the two of us talking about our financial anxieties and the associated thoughts and feelings helped John and me to mentally arrive at the point where we were indeed ready to take the leap.  

John:  As my retirement date grew near, I felt anxious about leaving my responsibilities at work behind me and trusting that things would get done. My job hadn’t been backfilled yet, so there was no time for training a replacement.  This was really stressful for me.  I wasn’t sleeping well and I was feeling pretty overwhelmed as I tried to get it all done before crossing the finish line. I shared my thoughts and feelings with Julie daily, who listened intently.  Her reassurances and third-party objective view helped to temper my stress and give me perspective as I finished out my career. 

So today we’ve just begun the retirement honeymoon.  We hope it never ends!  But we know that life will continue to change and evolve, bringing both joys and challenges along the way. We also know from experience that expressing our dreams, thoughts, concerns, fears, and feelings like we did when we were planning my retirement will help us to get through pretty much anything. By doing so, we will choose to live the BEST of our life  – together.