Life After Work: Not Done Yet

Your Career May Be Over. But You’re Not!

What happens when retirement isn’t what you thought it would be? Your career is over but you’re not done yet.

You’ve walked away from your career that consumed a huge part of your life across multiple decades. Some people are ecstatic: they get to live on their own terms now without schedules, plans, commitments or responsibilities to an employer. They are actively pursuing time with grandchildren and trips across the globe. 

But for others, something feels off when the calendar suddenly looks very empty and the structure is gone. And underneath the relief, there may be a quiet question: “What am I going to do with the next 20 or 30 years?”

I know people on both ends of that spectrum. 

I help the magnificent humans in the second category – people who are simply not done yet and are not sure where to begin are the people I help.

Life After Work

Leaving a job, regardless of whether it was on our own terms or not, changes almost everything that we knew about how to live our lives. We had a structure and a purpose and we knew where to go each day and what to do once we arrived there.  

You’ve saved money for retirement. How much time did you invest considering what a “successful” post working life actually looks like? Even if you have made plans – a trip, a move, a renovation or hobby – will it consume the next 20-30 years? What does life after work really look like?

Do You Like Snow?

There is no “one size fits all” retirement and the changes in our emotional, social and psychological landscape can be overwhelming. 

We are all different. Consider the following:

The combinations of possible answers implies that your future will be unique to you. And retirement planning is not a random, “fill in the blanks”, mad-libs kind of exercise. 

It begins with what is important to you.

What is most important right now?

When I left my job at 55, I knew only one thing for certain:

I needed a reset and a new direction.

That was enough.

I didn’t have the next 20 years figured out.  I didn’t even know what my contribution would look like going forward.

So, I began by taking a couple of months to focus on anything but what I had left behind. 

The lack of structure was liberating but not everyone feels that way. My solo ride across Canada on my Spyder taught me how to live in the moment. Most days started without knowing where I would sleep that night and it flexed my resilience muscles that were sadly out of shape. 

Upon returning to the Montreal area, I went back to school to become a certified coach, started painting again, wrote a book and read more books than I can remember.

And, I sought out coaches – which allowed me the see myself more clearly than ever before and led to finding my unique path forward. Before long, I knew in my bones that everything would be ok even when I didn’t always know my next steps.

Feeling stuck? Start with “one”…

The unknowns of life after work can be nerve wracking. That said, the good news is that none of us has a crystal ball to predict the future: you are not alone! You now have an opportunity to look at your life and figure out what is best for you – congratulations! 

You don’t have to have all of the answers when you start. Take a look at the different areas of your life, pick one and name one small thing that you can do in the near future. Here are a few prompts to get you thinking about one thing that you can start with:

What is one thing that you want to do during your retirement?

What is one friendship that you want to cultivate?

What is one thing that you will miss about your job and where can you find that in your life after work?

What is one hobby that you’ve always wanted to try?

Give Yourself Some Space

I also recommend a little digital detox as you change chapters. As much as possible, step away from the screens, watches and other devices that constantly demand your attention. 

Give yourself permission to do nothing for a while.

Take a walk.

Read a book.

Sit outside.

Travel somewhere without an agenda.

Be bored.

You don’t have to immediately replace your working life with a perfectly planned retirement.

Sometimes, before we can discover what’s next, we need enough quiet to hear ourselves think.

You’re Not Done Yet

If you’re within a few years of retirement, or you’ve already left work and are wondering “Is this really it?”, you are not alone.

You may not need another bucket list. You may need to understand who you are becoming now that your career is no longer defining your days.

That’s the work I do through Remarkable Retirement.

Together, we explore your values, identity, purpose, resilience, relationships and what matters most to you now, so that retirement becomes more than an end to your working life.

It becomes the beginning of a chapter that feels meaningful, intentional and unmistakably yours.

If your career has ended but you know you’re not done contributing, creating, growing or experiencing life, I’d love to help you explore what’s next.

👉 Explore Remarkable Retirement or book a conversation with me. You decide if this is a good fit.

You’re not done yet. And you don’t have to know exactly what comes next.

You just need the space to discover it.