Mindset

Take a seat.

One version of retirement is defined by what has been lost.  Strength that has diminished. Speed that has slowed. Roles that have ended, the colleagues who have scattered, the options that have quietly closed. If that is the frame through which you view retirement, it will feel like a long diminishment — because measured against what was, most things will eventually fall short.

Another version begins not with what can no longer be done, but with what remains possible. In most cases, what remains  is considerably more than the common  narrative of ageing might suggest.

In practice, this shift in orientation is  exactly what mindset means. No relentless cheerfulness to  paper over real difficulty, and no denial of the real losses that too often come with ageing. Deliberate exercise of a consistent  choice to face forward — to ask what this next stage of life makes available rather than consider only what has been taken away.

People to whom orientation comes naturally have always looked forward, adapted readily, and found adjustment to retirement relatively straightforward. If that describes you, the task is maintenance — holding your orientation steady when new circumstances test it, as they will.

For many, reframing means real work. Habits of thought that took decades to form do not shift easily, and a mindset that served well in one context may need deliberate adjustment in another. This is not a character flaw. It is simply a recognition that retirement is life of a different kind and meeting it may well require thinking about it differently.

The practical consequences of mindset are major. How you think about your own capabilities affects what you attempt. What you attempt affects what you achieve. What you achieve affects how you feel about yourself and your life. 

The loop runs in both directions — which means that caring for mindset is not a soft pursuit. It is as functional as diet, sleep, or exercise, and  deserves just as much consistent attention.

We will look at this in the Commentaries ahead. Mindset underpins all of them — including the one that follows, on mental acuity. How you think about your own mind turns out to matter almost as much as what you do to look after it.

Jack Lack’s Listening Chair is always here, as is your welcome.