First steps preparing for retirement

My organization hired my replacement recently. The job description provided a pretty good structure for an effective transition of leadership. The two of us are woking closely so that the organization continues to move forward and continue its mission.

It is my role now to help the new person fill any gaps as we make the transition happen. It is also my role now to figure out how to help me effectively transition to a retirement chapter of some sort. About six years ago I retired from one of my jobs to take on the current job in a more full-time manner as well as give myself a little more freedom. I never stopped working.

Mostly, I have not stopped working since I was 12 years old and started my paper route. I did have an extensive travel opportunity after my time in the Corps but pretty much it has been work for most of the life. Now the question is will I continue to feel okay with my contributions to life without a nearly full-time position.

So this week I am taking the opportunity of hanging out at the beach house owned by my daughter to get some feeling about how it feels not to head into work. I did still check all my emails this morning and return messages so it is not a cold turkey experiment.

I also completed the application for Red Cross volunteer and got the notice today that most of the steps have been approved so I am thinking in a couple of days I will get to start a new type of constructive opportunity. The first training is next week.

I have the luxury of working through this transition but am continuing to surprise myself at how unnatural it feels to even think about not working. One of the interesting side effects of this is the trove or material on how to negotiate this new chapter that appears in this forum we call “medium.”