For those of you who are working towards retirement in a traditional sense (i.e. no work/all leisure), if we redefined the “R word” to incorporate your work with your play and you could have your preferred (leisure) lifestyle while still creating impact and changing lives would your goal for retirement be the same?
It’s OK if you want to end work and begin retirement as a “full stop,” with no turning back since that’s what most people in the world choose to do (assuming they can afford to do it).
But I have a feeling that many of you in my online family may not feel that way.
Just a hunch.
Therefore, I have an alternative way to look at “Retirement” (what will be the “fourth R” in this post) … with even more about it in the P.S.
This alternative view will be told first through three leading indicators/“R’s” (using some poetic license).
The reason I am compelled to share this with you today is that this take on retirement has come up multiple times over the past few weeks during the Breakthrough Advertising Bootcamp, a podcast I was a guest on, a Titans Xcelerator call…and when I was an interviewed for over 2 hours during a mastermind for up-and-coming copywriters.
Four times in three weeks…that’s not just a sign…it’s a rerun with purpose. 🙂
The first three “R’s” of Retirement is foundational and at the core of our educational system:
Readin’ (a.k.a. Reading), Ritin’ (a.k.a. Writing) and ‘Rithmetic (a.k.a. Arithmetic).
I warned you about the poetic license that was coming…
My thesis is that there are other choices besides work or play…namely work and play…throughout your lifetime.
And a big thank you and attribution to Dan Sullivan, the top coach for entrepreneurs in the world, for teaching me about “retirement” this way and giving me the inspiration to run his theory through these three R’s.
Readin’: Retire from things you don’t like to do
When someone says they are looking forward to retirement, one of the joys they seem to relish with all that newfound free time is catching up on all the books they didn’t have time to read while they were immersed in a full-time career.
But do those things need to be mutually exclusive?
I maintain that whether you are a voracious reader or not, reading inside your field and outside your field needs to be a regular part of your ongoing education to maintain a lifetime of learning.
And reading as much as you can all the time will give you insights into what you like to do most…and more importantly, what you don’t like to do…whether you are young or old, active or retired.
The “readin’” I’m referring to here was, for me, more in non-fiction and biographies until I was schooled (or re-schooled) by folks smarter than me.
After reading all fiction in college and reading only non-fiction in my first 3 decades in business, I realized the errors of my ways which I detail in “The case against fiction (not really).”
Readin’ of any kind will perpetually inspire you to think of new ideas and to innovate whether you are in your “wonder years” or your “twilight years” …or any of the decades in-between.
It’s also the ultimate insurance policy that your mind remains lively in your formative years; and remains equally lively while you are experiencing more leisure in your “retirement.”
A mind is a terrible thing to waste…at any point in one’s lifetime.
My problem is that I’m a very slow reader which is a challenge for me–and others– as I found out from many of you when I wrote “Surviving your library”.
My thesis in that post was “slow readers make better writers” …which was at least a little self-serving—and controversial–as indicated in my follow up post where I shared thoughts from readers titled, “Reading is telepathy.”
No matter what your opinion is on reading during work time or play time, pre-retirement or in retirement (and as you can tell I’m intentionally blurring those lines), it is the one lifelong hobby that needs to be part of your lifelong occupation…which ultimately determines how you retire from the things you don’t like to do.
At least that’s my spin here on readin’…and relaxin’.
And whether you read fast or slow or read to become a better writer, or read just for the sake of reading, reading is fundamental…and I know that because I read it here on the Internet. 🙂
Ritin’: Retire from the things you don’t do well
The second of the “4 R’s of Retirement” is Ritin’.
To figure out what you don’t do well, you must write…to yourself and to others.
And before you start ritin’, you need to become brutally honest with yourself…don’t feel bad that you don’t do everything well…because you can’t do everything well.
Write two lists side by side.
One with everything you do well (and if you dare, what you do better than anyone in the world).
And the other list has everything else.
Dan Sullivan calls the first list your “Unique Ability” and it is the cornerstone of his Strategic Coach program.
This first list should also encompass all your “non-negotiables”—that is, under no circumstances will you compromise excellence in any of the areas you excel in.
The second list is left for the stuff you can “buy elsewhere” or stuff you can adapt from elsewhere…or find someone else (from elsewhere) to do it for you.
My analogy in the form of a joke that is painfully serious in my case:
“I am not good with my hands and never built or fixed anything in my life. The only thing in my toolbox is a checkbook.”
Taking this further, also courtesy of Dan Sullivan:
“If you can write a check to solve a problem you don’t have a problem.”
Enough about spending money on the things we don’t do well.
But it is the best investment you can make.
The initial step is to admit what you’re good at and what you’re not good at…everything else flows from there.
Then…keep writing/ritin’ (and sharing) inside your expertise.
And note…your ritin’ could also lead to writing a book…optional but worth considering if you want to share your expertise with a wider audience.
Leave everything else to experts to write and share about their expertise…while you focus on your expertise.
Bonus: You can then read or hear about it from those experts and you learn without doing.
‘Rithmetic: Retire from people you don’t want to hang out with anymore
I guess this third leg of this definition of retirement can be summed up more as a math problem than anything else.
If you are a lifelong learner, readin’ to retire from things you don’t like to do and ritin’ to retire from the things you don’t do well will need some ‘rithmetic to count the appropriate friends who fit with your new definition of retirement.
You will need friends who are consistent with how you are improving your thinking and insights, what they can teach you to fill in the gaps…and while this is hard to say, the more you grow, the more you might have to create ‘rithmetic that is addition by subtraction.
Or at least addition by replacement.
Simply put, your new enriched life might need to include some new friends and even getting rid of some old ones…all done with diplomacy and love, of course. 🙂
I learned at a very young age that “retirement” is not something to aspire to…it’s something to be earned and treasured as another step in the career called life.
And once you earn it–and that does not mean it just happens when you turn 65, 75 or 85–you can do whatever you like with the money, freedom (and golf) that comes with it.
Note that it also comes with accumulated wisdom whether you retire at 35 or 85…however at 85 you’ve got some more material to work with for sure.
“In my books”–those that I’ve read and the two I wrote– “retirement” does not mean “not working.”
And if there was a math book on “retirement” (and not one that simply calculates your net worth and how you won’t outlive your money), it would be titled Working through Retirement and the Real Arithmetic Involved.
That math “problem” equates to adding and subtracting, as needed and desired, to your online and offline families…with the result summarized by the quote below.
I have shared the quote below with you in the past (many times) and it came up during my adventures over the past three weeks.
Here’s another chance to grab a copy for yourself if you haven’t already.
I first read it on the back of the business card of my ultimate mentor Marty Edelston…and that business card, front and back, is framed on the wall in my office, readable when I am at my computer, so I can read it in real time during podcasts, Zoom calls and anytime it is applicable…which is very often…and done four times in the last three weeks.
Going down the Google rabbit hole, it has been sourced as a Zen Buddhist Text or as a variation of a quote from authors such as Lester Thurow, James Michener and Lawrence Pearsall Jacks (and I’m sure there are others who want to take credit for it):
The Master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.
Whoever reads this, writes this or creates a math problem from it, it seems to nail an excellent definition for “The Big R” (“The Big Four R’s?”) …and a lot more succinct than this blog post. 🙂
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. Ah…the “fourth R” …Retirement.
A time to relax? Or to get started?
I vote for both.
So does my longtime friend, mentor, and top gun copywriter Kim Krause-Schwalm.
She recently told me she might be leaving my Titans Xcelerator Mastermind (which would sadden me greatly) because she is considering “retirement.”
But with her wide-ranging wisdom, her eclectic interests (did you know that this badass copywriter recently wrote a children’s book…NOT about direct marketing or with a supplement offer attached?), I will assume (and hope) that she is talking more about the three R’s of Retirement with less focus on the fourth.
More of a “semi-retirement” as she is calling it.
I’m thinking “semi” will involve lots of readin’, ritin and ‘rithmetic. 🙂
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The “Fourth R?” Hope not!
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