Guest Opinion: Reinventing yourself without losing your mind (Part Two)
By DIane Ramsey | Co-founder, Iowa Women Lead Change
This is Part Two in a two-part series about reinventing yourself after retirement. Read Part One here.
Every day more than 10,000 baby boomers leave the ranks of the full-time employed and begin their next chapter. Startlingly, that translates to 4 million boomers retiring annually. Like everything else we boomers have done before, we are now changing the face of retirement and what to expect from it. Unlike our parents and grandparents, we don’t retire. Instead, we reboot and reinvent ourselves, according to the authors of “The Retirement Boom.” Ask a boomer and they will tell you that staying relevant is important to their health and productivity.
In an earlier Lift Iowa edition, I shared my story and lessons learned from joining the ranks of the “retired” baby boomers. Frankly, it was a more traumatic transition than I had anticipated, even though I had been coached in advance by dear friends who had made the leap before me. Suffice it to say, 14 months into this next chapter, I am still learning and adjusting. I can also say that I am thriving!
As promised, I’m sharing what I’ve done and how I’m faring since leaving the security of friends, colleagues and family in Iowa. Some of you reading this article will be precisely where I was a year ago and others of you know, live with or love someone who is or will be moving on to the next chapter very soon.
Here’s some advice based on my experience:
- You have to let go. No matter how hard it is to walk away from what is most important to you – your family, your career, your friends, your volunteerism – you have to do it. It’s impossible to retain the same level of connectedness – and I’ve learned that’s OK.
- Your job is NOT who you are. That was a tough lesson for me. Instead, my experiences, my skills and my personality make up who I am, and they go with me. I bring that to any situation I encounter. Once I figured that out, life was so much better.
- Mentor and cheerlead. I can’t be there to be “hands on” with my former teammates. I can, however, recognize their accomplishments, be their biggest fan and, when asked, provide advice and insights.
- You can plan and design your next chapter. Not only can you decide what you want to do, you can decide when and where. Life in the Southwest is a new experience for me every day and I love it!
- New beginnings create new opportunities. Do you feel pigeonholed by others’ perceptions and expectations of you? If you choose to create your next chapter in another city, you can also start fresh by choosing how you will be defined.
- My passions have led me to new work. While leading IWLC, I would tell everyone that I had the best job I could imagine because I spent every day focused on making life better for women in Iowa and the region around it. It was a nonprofit that truly was an Iowa startup success story, and our team culture had an entrepreneurial spirit. I am so thankful for the opportunities and connections through IWLC. My many volunteer activities on nonprofit boards opened new doors for me in New Mexico!
- What does a “rebooting” CEO do? she joins a startup! I’ve joined Dr. Tererai Trent, Oprah Winfrey’s all-time favorite guest, as CEO in her new company, The Awakened Woman LLC. It is fast-paced and challenging, and entirely focused on making the lives of women and girls better globally.
- Deploy your skills where they are needed. Earlier this year I joined the board of trustees for the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, N.M., chairing their marketing and development task force. Girls Inc. of Santa Fe is an organization dedicated to making girls smart, bold and strong, and I am supporting their development committee and may even chair a conference for them in the future.
- Get political. While at IWLC, I couldn’t take sides. Today I can actively support my candidates of choice and am a founding member of Invest to Elect Women New Mexico.
Meanwhile, in addition to the initiatives that add meaning to my life and I hope to others, I can now make a mean prickly pear margarita, am mastering the nuances of high-altitude cooking and fostering a love of Native American arts and culture. Have I successfully rebooted and reinvented myself? I’ll let you be the judge.
Diane Ramsey is co-founder of Iowa Women Lead Change (IWLC) – Iowa’s premier leadership organization for women and co-chair of the EPIC Corporate Challenge, Iowa’s statewide public private partnership to advance women.
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