Since my retirement in December 2022, I’ve written several essays discussing various aspects of my retirement journey. As I approach the two year mark of my retirement, I thought it was time to reassess my retirement.
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- Has my retirement evolved as expected?
- Am I satisfied with my current retirement–am I on track to a happy, healthy, and fulfilling retirement?
- Does my retirement plan need a minor course correction or a major reboot?
I began studying the concept of ‘retirement’ when I retired, leading me to develop my “Designing Your Retirement” syllabus, based on a review of approximately 100 medical articles.
In the process of developing that syllabus, I have learned that if I wanted to have a happy, healthy and fulfilling retirement, I needed to attempt to achieve the following 6 evidence-based objectives and 4 personal objectives that form “My Strategic Retirement Plan”:
My Strategic Retirement Plan
Evidence-based Objectives (relevant to most people): 1. Augment the number of meaningful social relations benefits: happiness, cognitive health, mental health, physical health, longevity, fulfillment 2. Define a sense of purpose and meaning benefits: happiness, mental health, cardiovascular health, longevity, fulfillment 3. Engage in physical activities, preferably amidst nature benefits: happiness, cognitive health, mental health, physical health, longevity, fulfillment 4. Participate in altruistic volunteer endeavors benefits: happiness, mental health, physical health, longevity, social connections, purposefulness 5. Invest to enhance long-term happiness benefits: happiness 6. Hack the brain to augment happiness benefits: happiness, mental health My Personal Objectives (uniquely relevant to my needs): 7. Engage in intellectual activities 8. Avoid needlessly stressful activities 9. Engage in creative activities 10. Explore the secular, spiritual world
The fact that the first 6 evidence-based objectives are derived from the scientific literature, and are as “vetted” as is possible, had convinced me that a retirement “plan” that is based on My Strategic Retirement plan should maximize my probability of having a happy, healthy, and fulfilling retirement. I closely adhered to that “path” and my early retirement experiences have convinced me that it is the correct path; as my retirement has been both entertaining and rewarding.
Biggest Change Since Retiring: Expanding My Social Circle
Since retiring, I have put considerable effort into trying to develop more meaningful social relations, as this was the first objective on My Strategic Retirement Plan–despite the fact that this priority was far outside my comfort zone and was never even entered my mind prior to retirement.
Over the last two years, I have created multiple events which I thought would expand my social circle and build a sense of community. Some of these activities are enumerated in the “Tactical Plan” section of my “Designing Your Retirement” syllabus. A ChatGPT generated summary of My Retirement Diary 2023 and 2024 is shown below in burgundy.
I had previously written that I didn’t believe I was making any progress in building more meaningful social relations. I now think that assessment was incorrect. I am definitely interacting with more people on a repeated basis–?friends ?acquaintances– who I had not known prior to my retirement. So maybe all my efforts are paying off.
One insight from my essay, Solo Road Trip: 16 days, 7,226 miles, in a Tesla with 2 Dogs, was the realization that I don’t feel ‘lonely’ when I am alone for extended periods of time—something I had long suspected. Nevertheless, the objective scientific data is overwhelming clear, having many meaningful social relations will beneficially impacts one’s health, happiness, and sense of fulfillment. So I will continue to try to expand my circle of friends.
An Unexpected Yet Very Important Component of My Retirement
The ongoing creation and updating of my “Designing Your Retirement” syllabus continues to be immensely gratifying as it gives me a sense of purpose and meaning, is intellectually satisfying, is a creative endeavor, and is my most primary volunteer activity. All of these are objectives on My Strategic Retirement plan.
Other Significant Changes Since Retiring
I have engaged in regular physical activity since retiring, something I did not do as aggressively and consistently prior to retiring. Current medical guidelines recommend 150 minutes per week of moderately vigorous activity. While my exercise is not moderately vigorous, (a leisurely walk or a moderate speed cycle) I make up for the lack of intensity with longer duration of exercise session, two hours, thrice weekly.
I can see the consequences of this exercise on my Apple health app: my level of fitness, as measured by aerobic capacity or VO2, is in the “high” range for my age and my weight remains stable since the summer of 2022 when I lost 10-15 pounds.
Cycling also serves a meditative and spiritual function for me. See The Joys of Cycling the Somerville Community Path / Minuteman Bikeway
I have continued to avoid needlessly stressful activities, such as engaging with the healthcare system (other than providing some free advice to one Health IT startup.) And I avoid engaging in political discussions that I believe will be non-productive (e.g. I will disengage if the person believes the earth is flat.)
I still find it helpful to post on my blog. Although few people read my essays; the writing process:
- Gives me a better understanding of the issue
- Is a creative and intellectual endeavor
- Helps clear the topic from endlessly circling around in my brain, and
- Seeing the essay on my blog gives me a sense of accomplishment.
In retirement I have significantly ramped-up my participation in the creative activities, including writing, woodworking and photography and I am happy to see that some of these efforts have favorably impacted my local community.
As I have mentioned in my writings elsewhere on this blog, I remain concerned about my memory, which I have discussed in My Retirement Diary, and am uncertain if this is normal age-related changes or implies a more progressive and consequential process. Time will tell.
My Daily Routine
My day typically begins at 6 AM or 7 AM.
I start with a cup of coffee while I review my calendar and emails looking for events I should consider adding to my calendar.
Depending on the weather and my mood, my day may include cycling, walking, reading/listening to books, woodworking, writing, working on my Designing Your Retirement syllabus, updating my blog, doomscrolling, attending theater, listening music at a local bar, or napping in my hammock. I also aim to give one free lecture each month on my Designing Your Retirement syllabus.
My day usually ends about 9 PM, reading the news from an iPad; I am almost always asleep by 10 PM, although I usually wake and read from 2-3 AM.
People Change. Has Retirement Changed Me?
In doing the research for my Designing Your Retirement syllabus, I learned that “Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’ve ever been. The one constant in our life is change.” Daniel Gilbert, Ph.D., Harvard
Thus, it is not surprising that people who go through major life events such as marriage, childbirth, divorce, or death of a loved one, are changed by the experience.
For those able to retire, retirement is one such major life event. Given Dr. Gilbert’s statement, I wonder how transitioning from a very busy medical practice and owner of a small medical software company into retirement has changed me.
My decision to leave the careers I once loved arose from ethical conflicts at a healthcare institution. The practice environment prevented me from maintaining my professional standards.
This conflict left me in a persistent state of disquiet, and, even two years into retirement, I still struggle with event-triggered anxiety—something I had not experienced previously. (See my essay: Moral Injury: A Physician’s Premature Retirement.) It feels as though my brain’s ‘anxiety detector’ is turned up by an order of magnitude, with small anxiety-inducing events affecting me disproportionately. This is particularly a problem when contemplating ways to fix our defective healthcare and political systems. I now avoid both situations.
As long as I respect those boundaries, my stress level is markedly decreased versus pre-retirement levels. I am happier and more easy going. Apparently, this is obvious to my friends and family.
It is our family’s tradition to gather every July 4 weekend at the family beach house in Scituate, Massachusetts. Typically, this is a gathering of 35 to 50 people, now 3 generations. This past July, the next generation of our extended clan, my kids generation, secretly awarded me “most improved.”
Retirement has also turned me into a much more social person–which I adamantly was not in pre-retirement. I am now constantly looking for opportunities to interact with others and expand my social circle.
I’ve also found that retirement has magnified my drive to create things. Although that proclivity was present pre-retirement, the drive has been increased by in order of magnitude. Now, if I don’t create something with regularity, I become unhappy. It is one of the primary reasons that I don’t enjoy traveling, as many others do during their retirement; for traveling interferes with my process of “creating.”
In the course of putting together my Designing Your Retirement syllabus, I learned that the retirement of a working husband can adversely impact the psychological health of their non-working spouse.
From my perspective, my retirement has strengthen my relation with Gail, my spouse. Maybe that’s because we’re doing more things together, maybe it’s because my overall stress level is reduced, I cannot explain it, but I definitely feel a tighter bond in retirement. I feel like we’re in this together and, in the end, we need to and can rely on each other.
Gail agrees with my impression. She said “the best thing that has happened to her in the last two years was my walking away from a toxic situation and releasing my anxiety markedly”.
In Conclusion
The first two years of my retirement journey has uncurled both as anticipated and with pleasant surprises.
I very am content with my current situation, but remain cognizant that the situation could abruptly change as a result of an unexpected health or financial issues. I have aortic insufficiency and anticipate that at some unknown time in the future, my heart will begin to increase in size under the relentless pressure of the regurgitant jet, and it will be time to under open heart surgery and have the aortic valve replaced.
As for the future, I intend to continue working to implement My Strategic Retirement Plan while continuing to participate in all my current activities, including enhancing and lecturing about my Designing Your Retirement syllabus. This path has served me well, so I will stay the course.
And I will continue to endeavor to say “yes” to any new opportunity that presents itself, as one should not let a potential opportunity slip away.
Hayward Zwerling
5 November 2024
For a list of my activities in retirement, see My Retirement Activities
For a list of books read, see Books and Audiobooks