How to Flunk Your Retirement – Part 2

Retirement offers the prospect of a new beginning.  Retirement is a commencement more than an ending.  Retirement gives us hope as we start a new life journey.  Retirement holds up a new light as we see a new path. The new journey brings us gifts: we become more interesting and lead a more meaningful life. This light is the same light that has steadied us all along….it is the light of Christ. 

So what do we need to do to fully capture this light of retirement and embark on this new journey?  The answer is in the way we use our personality.  Personality is a tool God has given us; personality is not a psychological constant, rather it is a malleable instrument, pliable to meet our needs.  In retirement we need to shift the way we use our personality.

In part one of this blog; I identify the six functions of the personality. Let’s look at some changes we need to make in each of these six functions

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1.  Believing. We need to re-value our own personal identity, we need to achieve an attitudinal shift from deriving our primary identity from work and mentally shift to a more balanced use of our energies in all life arenas.  We need to let go of valuing our life only in terms of “what “we do or did, and shift to a new personal identity of “who” we are. 

2. Perceiving.  We need to re-focus our visions and actions around our notion of personal aging and more clearly focus on becoming ageless.  We need to see our maturation process as a time of emotional and spiritual vitality and vibrancy full of potential for dynamic and ongoing personal growth. 

3. Thinking.   Retirement calls us to think differently about the true meaning in and of our lives.  Retirement is about finding and implementing a sense of personal life purpose, a cause that allows us to connect better with ourselves and with God.

 

4. Feeling.  Retirements calls us to seek a new peace… to value the present moment, to live more clearly in the now of God.  Retirement offers us a new quality of life not measured by our “comings and goings,” or our “to-do” lists, but rather in our ability to experience awe, wonder, and delight in what is right in front of us… the magnificent creation of God. 

5. Decisions. Retirement asks us to take charge of our life in new ways, to grasp and implement a deeper understanding of our own power of choice.   Retirement lets us empower ourselves to purposefully choose to let go of defining ourselves only as the world does, and consequently letting the world direct our decisions.  Retirement lets us take charge of our lives and rely on our own internal sense of self-discernment for making plans and decisions not as the world would dictate, but as God does.

6. Action.  Retirement asks that we get going… to offer our personal resources – our time, talents, and wealth in God’s service.  Retirement is a time for true vocation, a new calling to serve God’s people and in so doing paving a path to our own salvation.