The Retiree’s Path

Description

Retirement removes the professional frame that most people have used, largely without noticing, to understand who they are. The role, the title, the daily rhythm of a working life — these were not simply the context in which you existed. They were, in a real and practical sense, the frame through which you understood yourself. When that frame is set aside, what remains is a genuine question: who am I, now that I am no longer primarily the person who did that work?

This book addresses what remains when the frame is set aside: the identity question that retirement produces and that nobody warned you about, the renegotiation of time and relationships that the transition requires, the search for purpose beyond the role, and the gradual discovery of what it means to inhabit a life that is finally, fully your own.

Drawing on the wisdom of Confucius and other ancient philosophers, The Retiree’s Path is written without false reassurance. It is an honest companion for one of the most significant passages of a human life — and an invitation to approach that passage with the same quality of genuine engagement that the best years of your working life involved.

Each chapter closes with ten reflective questions, a practical exercise, and a summary connecting the chapter’s ideas to the path ahead.

Part of The Path series, published by Greenfields Press.