Two Months Left

As I said a month or so ago, I will be making my first major step toward retirement later this year. To be exact, it will be exactly two months from today, December 3, that I will have my last day of full-time employment. That week I will switch to a .4 full-time equivalent. As I said back then, my list of things I am thinking about and exploring includes:

• Free-lance writing
• Training as a group fitness instructor
• Learning some music theory and composition
• Finishing several short stories that have been percolating for a while
• Doing some real video work
• Practicing my trumpet more
• Picking up the guitar again and looking at some bluegrass opportunities
• Reading
• Improving my Spanish comprehension

I came up with the idea of calling this my third career, or more "poetically", Career Three. That of course came from the book listed over there in my book list, The Third Chapter. A remarkable book that has been giving me some good insights and directions to start with in these preparation months. It also comes from the fact that in my adult working life I have been successful in two careers. The first lasted 30 years, the second 20 (with 10 years of overlap.) I am seeing retirement as a new career. Hence the part-time transition from my current full-time work to whatever retirement looks like probably by this time in 2014.

Not wanting to just come screeching into December, I have been doing some work with a wellness coach. He has been asking me the tough questions and prodding me to find some answers. He asked me in our first session how I make big decisions. My answer was that I gather information and then go with my intuition.

I have been finding, however, that this was not quite true. There is more than just letting the information settle waiting to see what rises to the top. I do, what my wife calls "twirling all these things around" and seeing what happens. I can spend a lot of time twirling and spinning.

Earlier this week I mentioned this to my coach again and he said that it sounds like a centrifuge. What's important will come whirling out to visibility. I liked that image. It has a research and "scientific" feel to it. I'm not just floundering along, I'm doing the work needed to make the next career a good one that is fun and meaningful.

As I move along, I will surely be reflecting here about it.