The frozen zucchini

Chop, scoop, bag.

Chop, scoop, bag.

We were facing a pallet of 1,800 pounds of frozen, finely-diced zucchini that had to go out the door of the food bank in smaller portions. A dozen or so of us were there to help, and another five pallets were waiting in the freezer for the next shifts after our three hours were up.

I always love an opportunity to watch a team of people enjoy what they’re good at doing. And so went my recent trip to Feeding America West Michigan.

My wife and daughter and I had joined the morning’s disassembly line at the invitation of my mother-in-law. She’s been volunteering at the food bank for a decade and a half, and has modeled what successful retirement can look like.

Over the course of those years since leaving paid work, she found all four of the key elements my retirement coaching clients end up missing after the big day:

• Structure and routine

• Identity

• Purpose

• Social connection

One way to recapture these important elements is to find another job you enjoy that includes all of them, perhaps for much lower pay or no pay at all. But it isn’t the only way to meet those needs. Suppose you feel like you’re absolutely done working, or you’re holding unexplored creative ambitions. There’s no universal playbook, but you can absolutely write your own.

Please read more for how I can help you envision this new chapter of life and make it an exciting one.

(Zucchini optional, of course.)

Image: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons