Creating Meaning in Retirement
Just how do we live meaning in retirement? In my last post, I left you with a question:
“What would shift if your goal wasn’t to fill your days… but to feel them?”
I like to think I’m bringing joy, intention, and meaning into each day. But truth be told, I’m also a bit like a kid in a candy shop: wanting it all, and wanting it now! The knowledge that my time on earth is limited helps ground me and reminds me to focus on what truly matters.
It’s easy to get swept up in daily tasks or pulled into the rhythms of other people’s lives. As I write this morning, I’m struck by how much I’ve appreciated the relative solitude of the past month. My summer began with a solo Spyder trip to eastern Canada, settling into a slower pace for 3 weeks while visiting my mom and working on a few small projects. My husband has joined me for the month of August.
Retirement, I’ve found, can awaken a curiosity that leads to unexpected tangents and experiments. For example, I recently took on the challenge of repairing an engineered floor and organizing the steps to get Bullwinkle (my beloved Spyder) back on the road after some mechanical hiccups.
It was liberating and a little self-indulgent. But it was also exactly what I needed. I’ll never be a mechanic or a handywoman, and that’s not the point. What mattered was learning just enough to make good decisions and reclaim my agency. It was a reminder that purpose doesn’t have to come with a job title or paycheck.
A Calendar That Counts What Really Matters
One of the tools that sits on my desk is a Memento Mori Calendar. It’s a visual reminder of how many weeks I’ve likely already lived, based on an 80-year lifespan. For some, this may feel like a morbid countdown. But for me, it’s something else entirely: a wake-up call to live more deliberately.
The calendar is rooted in Stoic philosophy and has been made more popular in recent years through writers like Oliver Burkeman, whose book Four Thousand Weeks challenged our obsession with productivity. A few weeks ago, I revisited a TED Talk by Alua Arthur on how embracing the inevitability of death is actually a gateway to living more fully. And not long after, I was reminded of the calendar again in Sahil Bloom’s The Five Types of Wealth. Inspired, I finally created my own version.
We live in a culture that glorifies youth and sidelines conversations about aging and mortality. But I’ve found that acknowledging the limits of our time doesn’t diminish life, it sharpens it. It helps us become more intentional.
The Gift of Limited Time
Retirement is an opportunity to accept that time is finite and to choose how we spend it with greater care. When we treat retirement as a gift of limited time, how does that shift our priorities?
This isn’t about chasing some grand plan. Quite the opposite. If something doesn’t light you up, maybe it’s not worth your time. Meaning can emerge from small, intentional acts: a cup of coffee savoured in silence, a shared laugh with a friend, time spent painting or walking or simply being present.
Ask yourself:
What lights you up?
A meaningful retirement isn’t just about what we do. It’s also about how we show up.
What Matters Most
One of my own non-negotiables this summer is spending an hour each day with my 87-year-old mother. Unless I’m physically elsewhere, I show up without agenda. Just presence. It’s meaningful in a way that nothing else is. It reminds me that while we may have unlimited possibilities in retirement, we do not have unlimited time.
Of course, even with the best intentions, things can fall by the wayside. As my schedule inevitably filled with visits, projects, and social time, some of my daily self-care rituals (like my early morning walks and yoga) started slipping. That sense of “busy over purposeful” crept in again, and with it, the feeling that something was missing.
Retirement shouldn’t feel like a to-do list.
This morning, I took a pause. I stepped back from doing, and asked myself how I could bring more self-awareness into the day. A few missed yoga sessions may not seem like much, but over time, those small choices shape how we age and how we live.
Sometimes, meaning doesn’t appear all at once. It arrives slowly, over time, in the rhythm of daily life.
What Will You Do With the Rest?
As I colour another square on my Memento Mori Calendar, I’m reminded that another week has passed.
What will I do with the rest?
What will you do with yours?
You can download your own calendar here: Blank Memento Mori Calendar
This is one of the themes we’ll explore in Remarkable Retirement which is my upcoming 4-session group coaching program designed to help you build a retirement that reflects who you’re becoming.
See the learning objectives here: Download Remarkable Retirement Learning Objectives
In this space, you’ll have the time and support to design a retirement that works for you.