Last spring was the season for “retirement” parties. The Des Moines Register reported that about 10 percent of Iowa’s state government workers chose to retire early under a package of incentives. This appears to be a trend, as the Baby Boomers accumulate years of life and work experience. Several people with whom I have worked for years decided to retire.

I had some input on two different retirement party invitations. The “R” word was being used repeatedly in each. So I suggested other language in an attempt to shift attitudes about retirement. On one invitation, we ended up using the words “Come celebrate their next phase of life.” On the other, we used “Come celebrate their next adventure!”

When I made these suggestions, people automatically agreed that they, too, did not like the word retirement, yet that was the first word that came to their mind – because people were officially retiring. Well, not really. They were leaving the workplace with the rights and privileges of retirement. The “R” word was used in the original wording of the invitation because it was the acceptable thing to say. It has been the norm, but it is time to retire the word retire.

In reality, people are moving on and transitioning into something else, whether or not they know it yet. When they realize they may have 30 years ahead of them, they know they are not retired. Maybe retired from one organization and type of work, but now they have time to explore other aspects of their life or unfulfilled dreams. We all know people who have retired from more than one career. In fact, More magazine, a Meredith Corp. publication targeted at women over the age of 50, has as part of its mission to help women “discover and reinvent themselves and their world” as they continue to accumulate more life experience.

When we reframe how we think about this phase of life, the language we use needs to change to shift our thinking and behavior. The themes we focused on in these “R” events changed to include some forward-thinking ideas, images and gifts. I am seriously thinking about designing some new cards for this phase of life. Retirement cards are often sad and depressing. Though there is an attempt to be funny, many are negative and offensive.

Life as we have known it for years may be changing, but life is far from ending. It can be exciting and fun if we make it so. The time to prepare for this life transition is sooner rather than later. Though much of the focus of retirement planning is financial, reframing how we think of this life phase is just as important for our emotional and spiritual well-being.

This is a time of life to celebrate what has been and what is left to come. What if the rest of life is the best of life? Now that should be something to celebrate!

Jann Freed (FreedJ@central.edu) holds the Mark and Kay DeCook Endowed Chair in Leadership and Character Development at Central College in Pella.