What do I do with all this time?

For most people, work is their main activity and interest throughout their lives. They dread the thought of retirement out of fear of boredom. And for good reason; when you leave the working world, you lose your established routines, your social network, and a sense of belonging. You lose the pleasure of having found your very own niche somewhere in society. Suddenly, you’re deprived of all your reference points, and you’re just not sure who you are anymore. You might feel useless with all that free time on your hands. And you know that in order to adapt to this new reality, you’ll have to learn to restructure your life somehow.

If you want to be able to look forward to retirement, it can help if you prepare yourself. How? Take stock of your life and flesh out which things are really important to you. This kind of discernment will help you determine what stimulates you and meets your needs. When you’ve figured out what’s important to you and what your real values are, it will be easier to find activities, causes, and projects to get involved with once you retire.

But finding a hobby isn’t enough. To avoid isolation, try to expand your social network before retiring. Even though your job allowed you to build friendships, working relationships rarely last after retirement, despite our best intentions.

Progressive retirement can be a good way to ease the transition between work and retirement. Volunteering and mentoring are also options that can allow you to stay active and continue to be involved in your field of expertise or interest.

Take stock of your life so you can define your needs and prepare for retirement.