Speaker 1: Retirement. When you think of retirement, what comes to mind?
For me? I think of being at our trailer where
we back onto this beautiful, amazing creek. It's my happy place.
When you think about retirement, what comes to mind, freedom, travel,
more time for your family. Well that's all part of it,
for sure, But what no one really prepares you for
is the transformation that begins the day you step away
from work. Retirement isn't just the end of a career.
It's the beginning of something deeper, something that can be
so rewarding, and sometimes it's not what you expected at all.
I'm Marien Debransky. This is life starts at retirement. I
produce a retirement lifestyle video every Saturday at noon. Now,
for most people, the first few weeks of retirement just
feels like a vacation. No more early alarm clocks, no
more meetings, no more deadlines. You sleep in, you catch
up on the TV shows, maybe even take a trip
that you've been putting off. But then but then something changes,
or at least for me, it did. It seemed like
it was there was no warning. One day I was like, whooh,
I get to sleep in, And the next day it
was Oh, my goodness, how am I going to fill
my day today? There was no more structure, there was
no more routine and the purpose that really defined me,
and I have to say it did. I was shocked.
Even if it didn't love your job, it's suddenly gone.
You realize that no one needs you to show up
anywhere at any time, no one's waiting for a report,
no one's asking you to do anything, and so you
start just questioning yourself by saying, who am I now?
And that's a question that can hit you harder than expected.
I remember the first time after I retired that someone
new introduced Hi, my name is and I said Hi,
I'm Moring Debranski and they say, oh, what do you do?
I didn't know what to say. I stumbled my way
through it and I said something like, oh, I used
to be a sales manager. But that's ridiculous. Why I
still question that? Why couldn't I say I'm retired. I
don't know. Maybe I thought retirement was only for old,
useless people, which is ridiculous, But I'm still not sure
why I couldn't say I'm retired, but just be prepared
for changes like that. Now, if you think about it though,
and this is huge. Retirement really is the first time,
or it was for me, the first time in my
adult life that I didn't have to be or do
anything for anyone but myself. Ooh, and that for me
again was a little bit terrifying, but so freeing. Many
of us start reflecting on the decades that we spent working.
You know, we raised our kids, we built a life,
we played the kids, played hockey, we went fishing. But
now what it's like someone gave me a blank canvas
with no instructions, with no paint brushes, with no paint
and I didn't quite know what to do about it.
And this is really the part that no one talks about.
They all say, retirement, your golden years, go enjoy it.
But all of a sudden, for me, I had an
identity crisis. I had many, many moments of doubts. I
missed not my work, I missed the people that I
used to be with, and I really I missed the
person that I was. I was busy, I had a purpose,
I was someone, which sounds really ridiculous. But stay with me, though,
because this isn't the end of the story. I think
here for me was really where the transformation began because
once I couldn't say I was this important person. Once
I couldn't didn't have the schedule, once I didn't have
the hustle. I finally got to ask myself, what do
I do now? And that's a big question, Not what
did my boss? What does my boss want me to do?
Not what do my kids need me? And hopefully you
listen to yourself, you really really listen to self. To yourself,
I'm hoping that you'll discover a passion that you never
had time for. You might enjoy something like of the
smallest ritual on morning walk, an afternoon tea, a weekly
lunch with a friend. You might enjoy and discover something
a bit bigger getting back in shape not mean yet,
learning a new language, or a trip you've always wanted
to take, Or you still might find something even scarier
and larger. Maybe you want to maybe you're going to
write that book you've always thought about, maybe you're going
to teach that class, or maybe you just decide to
live halfway around the world for a month or two. Ooh,
you see, that's where we are in this stage of life.
We're not winding down, we're unfolding. The layers. This next quote,
I guess is probably one of the most powerful quotes
I've heard. It says we go from working for money
to living for meaning. I love it. That's the key
to your retirement, to go from working for money to
living for meaning. You see, when we're working, most of
us are driven, at least in part by necessity. We
have to pay the bills. We work to support our families.
We work so week can pay for hockey, We work
so weekend someday retire, And whether we loved our jobs
or just endured them, there was a clear reason to
get up every morning the paycheck. That paycheck gave us
a sense of worth, It gave us security, it gave
us identity. But when you retire, that paycheck stops and
something unexpected happens, you realize that your time is no
longer measured in dollars. There's no promotion to chase, there's
no quarterly bonus, there's no performance review, thank goodness. Instead,
you begin asking yourself questions like what makes me feel alive?
What do I want to leave behind? How can I
make these years count? What if I always wanted to
do but didn't have time? And that's When the shift begins,
we go from working for money to living for meaning.
You stop asking yourself how much is this worth? And
you start asking yourself, is it worth my time? You
stop filling your calendar with obligations and start filling it
with things that fill your soul. So it doesn't often
always have to be something big. It doesn't have to
be a big, dramatic dream. Sometimes it's just found in
the quiet joy of a morning routine, the peace of
a sunset walk, or the joy of listening to your
creek behind your trailer. When you let go of chasing money,
you start chasing moments, You start chasing connection, You start
chasing growth, and for me the big one, you start
chasing peace. And that's the real retirement upgrade that no
one talks about. And so one more powerful part of
the transformation is you begin to live with intention, not
to impress anybody, not to climb that corporate ladder, not
to do anything for anyone, but you you begin to savor,
connect and feel at peace with who you are and
how you spend the time. Because you have nothing to
prove to anyone, You finally are giving yourself permission just
to be you. Retirement really is the gift of time.
The question, though, is what will you do with that? Hmmm.
You don't need to change the world, but you can
change your world one choice, one moment, one adventure at
a time. Again, I'm Marien Demuransky. This is life Starts
at retirement. Please can sy the you're liking subscribe to
this channel. Now go make your retirement remarkable, no matter
what that means to you. See you next week.