This was the long awaited change which was due from the day I turned 50. After a lot of thinking and re-thinking it finally happened on 31st August. You can get off the train but you can still feel the rumbles of the departing train when you are standing on the platform. My 4 months are something like this. When you are running for 25 years,it takes time to get into a new routine.
What Next?
When I look back at the last month before my last day. I was already planning what to do next. And I think that pressure continued for some time till I met a few friends who had been through this and had gone through similar withdrawal symptoms. I think it was more to answer my family & people around me and less to me.
Long back I had read this article in HBR ‘What’s your story?’ - the summary of the article was that, write out your story when you do that you clarify to yourself how your life story is shaping. I may not write but often I do this exercise when I walk early in the morning.
If you ever listen(or read an interview) to a good founder of a start up - you will see how clear they are of their idea and the genesis and its impact etc. More than the no’s & their success I always loved their confidence, commitment, belief on the idea, some of them can be as esoteric as rockets being sent to space or idli batter. Their ikigai is very clear. Mine is still hazy.
The idea that if you are earning you are worthy
You can see it in the eyes of most of the older generation - read my parents age. I don’t have any quarrel with them because they have evolved from a generation of lack and we are the generation of too many choices and all of them are not necessarily wise. But the new generation or my generation folks welcome the idea that I gave more importance to my life goals than a corporate goal. It’s not that you I for acceptance but any different choice will give raise questions and i have to be ready to answer it - if you want to be social.
How much do you need ?
This is a follow up question to the earlier one.
Not much really. I did the math (because this is a constant debate with my finance minister aka the wife) and if you have your own house you can live luxuriously in 50K even in a city like Bangalore. With eating out and movies thrown in. The larger expense is only in travel, education and renovation, appliances (which are once in 10 yrs) etc. Yes, there is a corpus needed for medical emergencies and other saving instruments. Having done that, you actually don’t need much. I remember when I was in college I had told someone, give me a basement with music, CD’s and DVD’s and I will never come out of it. There was no internet in those days and no mobile - I can say many teenagers are carrying everything (I needed then) in their pocket..
Having a goal is important
It’s important to have a plan or to be clear on what you want to do, it’s easy to be easy - which is fine but you will soon get bored. Humans are wired to get a sense of achievement / finishing a task, this has been proven scientifically. Without a sense of purpose you are lost & days will just pass by. I am at the other extreme end of this spectrum where I plan my day / week / month and year. Something I picked up from Stephen Covey’s workshop & this has been my way for 15 yrs.
Have a daily schedule / habit
I make it a point to sit at my desk every day at 10 this itself brings in the focus. There is no pressure to perform a specific task, except those I have chosen to do and I do it my way. This daily habit of checking in is very important as it brings in the discipline needed to get things done. Work will automatically happen.
Being in touch with the past
Friends can become a great enabler. One thing which disappears from your life when you retire is the circle of colleagues but it also gives you time to curate your friends list. It’s important that you be in touch with some of them who were more than colleagues. It will not be easy but you have to cultivate them - since they will be busy like you were. I am not a natural at this. Like I mentioned above I am more of a basement guy who is cocooned in his own world. I am still trying with some help from my friends 🙂
Take your family along
They will be a great sounding board and encourage you in your journey. Sometimes it will be difficult for them to understand your choices. Let it be, nothing is perfect.
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