In the interests of full disclosure, what you are about to read is NOT my typical blog post. I’ve been thinking CAREFULLY about whether or not to renew my WordPress account for another year, and this this is (partly) the result of that thought process.
This started out to be a pretty regular blog post. First it was one topic, then another. Pretty much like I always do. Then I thought, “What if I do something a little different this time? What if instead of just sitting down and ‘firing away’ I plan ahead a little and really write something with the intention that someone might actually want to read it?” What? Planning ahead? What a concept!
So, after considering this post (and this whole blog) I decided to plan what I’m going to write. Here goes!
Once upon a time, in Federal Way Washington, a retired mental health nurse/EMR consultant/real estate guy sat down to plan the rest of his life. High on the agenda was something called “career plans”. Something really different–brand new really–because never before in my life had I really planned any sort of career. For example, my nursing career (awfully tempted to put this in quotes as “nursing career”) was never really planned. It just sort of dropped into my lap. As did my “real estate career”. One day, I was at a dead end in what I was doing in the piano business, and real estate was there. I few easy courses, and I was licensed as a realtor in British Columbian city of Surrey. This has pretty much been the story of any career I have ever entered (and subsequently left).
So here I am. I know an awful lot of stuff. Stopping learning stuff has been an experience, an eye opener, a discipline! To just stop and say, “Enough of the life-long learning already!” You know enough, now do something–anything!
Back when I was a kid (okay, not all that long ago), I thought I wanted to be a psychologist. Not a clinical psychologist (I really didn’t want to fix things!), not a counselor. I really don’t have anything–or didn’t at the time anyway–have anything anyone could benefit from! I just wanted to study how people thought, how they gave flight to their ideas. I wanted to know, so I could let others know.
Instead, I let my career lead me. First through a rather long sojourn through the music business. First thinking I wanted to be a performer (I wasn’t good enough, or dedicated enough to become good); then a salesman/business man (I wasn’t smart enough or fast enough or competitive enough to make it in “business”); then a piano technician (not good enough or dedicated enough or smart enough or fast enough or competitive enough). Eventually, after long enough in the music business, I decided (God knows how) to follow in the family footsteps and I became a nurse.
I was a nurse for about 25 years. I worked mainly in hospitals, in home health, and finally at the insistence of one of my university professors (I went from diploma to degree) I became a technician (again) working in the newly established field of healthcare information technology.
Somewhere in there, I found time for a fledgling career in real estate. Enough said about that.
Here I am at 66 years old, wondering what did I really want to do when I grew up?
I am now looking at retirement as being my second (or third) career. Maybe this time I’ll get it right.
A mentor, blogging master and friend (?), Brian Feutz, puts it this way in his blog, The Life After Work Zone, “practicing retirement is a crazy, yet brilliant, idea. Just a few moments a day (practicing) will guarantee an outstanding retirement.”
I’m ready to try it. I wish I would have had this idea earlier in my working life.