New Seniors

For nearly 45 years, my identity was determined by my current job description. I did not realize how shallow this was until I was suddenly faced with the reality of retirement.

Let me tell you a little about the painful process of rediscovering myself. This ultimately resulted in my finding new meaning and purpose for me by rethinking my priorities and redirecting my talents in order to live life to the fullest.

Like many pre-boomers, I grew up with the “Organization Man” philosophy and a dedication to the “Protestant Work Ethic.” Having such concepts etched into my brain, I embarked on a career in the advertising agency business. My early days on Madison Avenue formed the idea that what you did was more important than who you were.

Perhaps this brief story will demonstrate the point. Two guys met in the bar car of the New York, New Haven and Hartford commuter train headed for Westport Connecticut, the once famous bedroom community for Big Apple ad types. One man asks, “what’s happened to Bill, I haven’t seen him for weeks?” The second fellow retorted, “didn’t you hear, Bill took sick and died.” “Oh my,” replied the first man, “what did he have?” To which the second man answered, “well let’s see, he had a small toothpaste account and…” That’s life, and death, in the ad game – and a lot of other businesses as well.

To get ahead and stay ahead required a fast mind, quick tongue, shrewd internal politics and long hours. I was willing to make the sacrifices necessary to rise to the top of my chosen field; and, unfortunately, my family life suffered as a result. I did succeed in terms of attaining financial gain along with recognition within the industry. But, these things did little to prepare me for retirement.

Nothing I had done in the past got me ready for this phase of my life. All I did was fortify myself to do battle in the days and weeks that lay directly ahead of me – a task that I accomplished pretty well for an extremely long period of time. I now realize that the better I did at preparing myself for the business arena, the less prepared I became for the inevitable day when I would hang up my spikes and throw away the game plan.

Over the past several years, I’ve had time to reflect and write about the past. I learned that we each have our own path to follow and then live with the outcomes resulting from the decisions we made. Looking back, I realize life has been good to me even when I wasn’t good to it. But that’s history, and there’s no sense worrying about tomorrow, because it never really comes. All I have is today. That’s why I’ve cultivated relationships with people with whom I can relate and talk about things that are mutually important. That’s why I try and be of service to friends and others who might need my help. And that’s why, even tough I didn’t spend enough time with my children, I am very involved with my grandchildren. Karma isn’t so bad after all.

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