Now. Right Now. As soon as possible. Do it this minute as we haven’t got the time left we think we have.
Most of us spend the bulk of our adult lives being productive, responsible and financially careful. We think we’ll relife one day to enjoy the good life but when does that day actually come? How do we know when it’s the right time?
Very few of us actually plan for relifement let alone practise it. Let me put it this way. If you were going to learn to fly a helicopter, or learn to fly fish or scuba dive and had never done any of these sports before, do you really think you could work right up till 5.00pm on your last day at work, retire, then on Monday be out there flying a helicopter or scuba diving?
I never said Relifement would be easy. It isn’t like knocking off work and going on vacation, although in my experience many people, men in particular, think of retirement as being as easy as going on one big holiday.
It does not cross their minds that it might require some planning and some practice. Some lessons even, maybe taking it a little bit at a time before building up to becoming a fully qualified Relifer. And as with any skill, the longer you do it, the better you get at it.
About 15 years ago I joined a group of friends and we rented a bare bones sail boat for a week of sailing out in the blue ocean. We all had a great time especially since few of us could actually sail and we not only had to do all the navigating and sailing, but we’d had to provision the yacht before we set out as well. It was all a lot of fun.
At one point during the week a friend asked me how I was enjoying the week off.
“This is not a week off, rather a week of, my life,” I replied.
Perplexed, he asked me to explain.
“I don’t measure life in terms of time away from work. This is not a day off work, it’s a day of my life”
This subtle but significant attitude was a prelude to practising for my Relifement too.
For more thoughts on Relifement, read the pages that are listed under Graeme’s Page of this web site.
