For those I haven’t connected with recently, I retired 7 months ago after being a full-time academic, researching retirement planning for nearly 20 years. Now I am focusing on implementing my findings: for myself, for individuals and for organisations. As I promised when I retired, I am providing a month-by-month account of my findings from the other side. This month I explore the agony of health behaviours, the unrealistic nirvana of allocating set days to work and the role of reconciling retirement guilt.
Health behaviours
Last week someone asked me what the most surprising thing about retirement has been and I did not hesitate to volunteer just how challenging it is to catch up on all the health behaviours ignored while working. I want to acknowledge that I was coming off a pretty low base. I’ve been building up my exercise routine over the past 18 months but before that my only exercise was walking from the car park to my office (about 150m).
I thought 7 months of going hard on diet and exercise would be enough to see some real changes but in reality change is slow – very slow despite constant effort and attention. If I had the opportunity to go back and change one thing before retiring it would have been to incorporate many more of these activities into my weekly schedule.
Too many short walks and too many lunches spent woofing down processed food at my desk has taken its toll and my body is taking a long time to catch up even with a strict diet, 8000 steps a day, 2 HIIT classes, 1 Yin yoga. Last week I added in weight training twice a week. It’s not just the time but expense – adding in dietitians, personal trainers, class attendance and exercise physiologists begins to add up quickly.
Maintaining work interests
I’ve totally given up on the nirvana of creating work silos on specific days of the week. If I did that I think I would most certainly be missing the opportunity to do some interesting work and stimulating intellectual activities. The likelihood of opportunities coinciding with the only 2 days I’d set aside to work seems unrealistic now given the range of work I like to do and the different groups of people that I work with. Instead, I’ve moved more to a project-based approach.
I’ve always considered myself someone who likes structure and routine, so this felt a bit uncomfortable at first, but I’m becoming more attuned to planning out my week on a Monday around health and social activities. I’m focusing on health behaviours, social events and then work rather than the other way around. It was no surprise to me when the new UniSuper Retire with Purpose report identified 28% of people wanting to work part-time but only 8% do (page 13). I’m not sure if this is a function of people re-evaluating the role of work or there being fewer opportunities available. The Intergenerational report points to 38% of people aged 55-75 having trouble finding work in 2024-2025 (page 187) but at the same time projecting people working for longer with more part timers in the future, so there really is no better time for employers to jump on board. How do we get that movement started?
Retirement guilt
I think it’s fair to say that some of my past work behaviours have been driven by a strong work ethic that forced me to prioritise work. On first graduating in Adelaide back in 1987 while my friends were off enjoying gap years I was off applying to every graduate program around the country to get a foothold in the marketplace as soon as possible. During this month I commented on a LinkedIn post by Nigel Bartlett about the topic of retirement guilt and I was amazed at the number of people who viewed it – more than 3000. I wrote:
When you describe retirement guilt it sounds a bit like survivor guilt after redundancies. I've been outside in the sun today and after sitting in a box without any windows for 3 years it feels magnificent. I let the guilt dry up in the sun like a muddy puddle.
Perhaps deciding what work we want to do in retirement starts by reflecting on what drove us there in the first place. What work means then and now may be very different things but applying an autopilot approach might have us literally flying in circles. For me work now is driven by interests, applying knowledge, and intellectual challenge not climbing a corporate ladder or development opportunities. What did work mean to you then and what does it mean to you now?
Joanne Earl is a Psychologist and Honorary Professor of Psychology and Retirement Planning. You can read more about Joanne’s retirement journey via LinkedIn or visit her website: www.retirementdr.com.au.