Refire! Don’t Retire: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
By Ken Blanchard and Morton Shaevitz
Book Review by Joe Casey
In Short
Retirement books are ubiquitous. But if you only read one book on transitioning to retirement, I’d urge you to read this one.
This is an exceptionally insightful and inspiring book. It’s fun, easy to read and full of practical wisdom.
Ken Blanchard and Morton Shavevitz encourage us to rethink retirement. In their view, it all starts with our attitude and beliefs. Sometimes we don’t realize that our own beliefs may be rooted in outdated views of aging and retirement. Instead, they advocate
thinking differently. They define Refiring as: “Adopting an attitude of embracing the years ahead with enthusiasm rather than apathy. “
It’s presented as an engaging story, but it’s based on solid research – although they don’t make you plow through the research to get the useful nuggets. Each chapter ends with a shortlist of action steps to consider. Using Blanchard’s entertaining ‘One Minute Manager’ format, the authors share the story of Larry and Janice, who have been married nearly 40 years. Attending Larry’s 45th high school reunion, they are struck by the contrast between two groups of Larry’s classmates, who are now in their sixties. One group is clearly active and engaged while another group seems to have “little joy or sense of the future…”.
Serendipitously, Larry runs into his former teacher, Dr. Jeffrey, at the reunion, who has spent the last decade studying aging and retirement. He then shares what he’s learned with them over a series of meetings and encourages Janice and Larry to put the lessons into action in ways that work for them.
Food for Thought
Blanchard and Shavevitz see planning for retirement as purely a financial task as a limiting approach. They argue that the transition to the retirement phase of life is a much broader adventure encompassing four areas of life:
- Emotional – engaging with key people in your life to revitalize meaningful relationships
- Intellectual – staying sharp mentally by pursuing learning and trying new things
- Physical – keeping active, healthy and fit
- Spiritual – connecting to something greater than yourself, not necessarily through religion, but through service to others
Takeaways
This book makes an interesting point about aligning with your spouse or partner. Keep in mind that you may not both want the same things in the next phase of life. One partner, after an exhausting career, may be ready to relax and recharge – or travel the world. But the other partner, perhaps after an exhausting period of taking the primary responsibility of raising children, may be more energized about achieving – returning to work, school or assuming a leadership role in a volunteer organization. Their point is don’t assume. Have conversations on the future early and often. It sounds obvious, but it often doesn’t happen.
Kickstarter
They pose powerful questions to consider:
- Are you going to embrace – or endure – the rest of your life?
- What are you going to do with the rest of your life to make it healthy and meaningful?
This book makes a compelling case that the next chapters of your life can be a period of active engagement and growth. Despite the very real challenges retirees face, with the right attitude and tools, the rest of your life can be intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually rich indeed. Scrap the traditional views of retirement. Instead, the authors urge us to Refire:
“Approach life with gusto. It’s to see each day as an opportunity for adventure and learning.”
