One day I asked a highly respected educational mentor and friend, “When do you know it’s time to retire?” She replied, “ oh, that’s easy. You woke up one morning and you say I don’t wanna do this anymore.”
Then, is the reality strikes you begin to think of the real reason why
Many of them you have mentioned above. In my case I wasn’t putting the passionate energy into it that I had done for so many years.
I just had a dear elderly friend die. As I sat beside his bed after he was gone, I told him I was ready to retire. I also knew I needed to be available to watch out for his wife, who was my mother‘s best friend.Charlotte
Charlotte - I can see how not finding yourself as passionate as you'd been would be a signal for you, particularly since you have such a lifelong love of children's books and storytelling. I didn't realize the connection between your friend dying and your decision to retire, but that makes sense. And if it's who I think it is, you were able to be so present to her while she was dying too. Maybe that's another piece of the decision - the way our life experiences shift our attention to things - like special friendships - that call us to be more deeply present and let go of work a bit.
When that sense of "what, this again?" hits hard (restructuring, a new vice chancellor promising the moon, a financial crisis that closes whole faculties, and all that). When the new year feels more like an exhausting re-run than a fresh exciting restart. When the other things you want to do start pressing in more urgently in you (write, embed into your local community, take better care of your and your loved ones, including the plants in your garden).
Caroline - I especially appreciated "When the new year feels more like an exhausting re-run than a fresh exciting restart." Not there yet - but I can imagine what that feels like.
One day I asked a highly respected educational mentor and friend, “When do you know it’s time to retire?” She replied, “ oh, that’s easy. You woke up one morning and you say I don’t wanna do this anymore.”
Then, is the reality strikes you begin to think of the real reason why
Many of them you have mentioned above. In my case I wasn’t putting the passionate energy into it that I had done for so many years.
I just had a dear elderly friend die. As I sat beside his bed after he was gone, I told him I was ready to retire. I also knew I needed to be available to watch out for his wife, who was my mother‘s best friend.Charlotte
Charlotte - I can see how not finding yourself as passionate as you'd been would be a signal for you, particularly since you have such a lifelong love of children's books and storytelling. I didn't realize the connection between your friend dying and your decision to retire, but that makes sense. And if it's who I think it is, you were able to be so present to her while she was dying too. Maybe that's another piece of the decision - the way our life experiences shift our attention to things - like special friendships - that call us to be more deeply present and let go of work a bit.
When that sense of "what, this again?" hits hard (restructuring, a new vice chancellor promising the moon, a financial crisis that closes whole faculties, and all that). When the new year feels more like an exhausting re-run than a fresh exciting restart. When the other things you want to do start pressing in more urgently in you (write, embed into your local community, take better care of your and your loved ones, including the plants in your garden).
Caroline - I especially appreciated "When the new year feels more like an exhausting re-run than a fresh exciting restart." Not there yet - but I can imagine what that feels like.