February 2023
So it seems that I’m not the only one in my circle of family and friends who decided to retire early.
It must be a “thing” now.
Chatting with them, the main reason for retiring early are mainly related to changes in their job circumstance.
Others I spoke to who are still working, have all expressed their desire to stop but can’t due to family or financial obligations. All of them don’t like the work they are currently doing, actively looking for other employment in the same area (with little luck I may add) while some have simply gone on “autopilot” in their job (“quietly quitting”) until something in their job situation forces them to take action.
So for people who are in their 50s, it seems that many of them are waiting for some “situation” in their work that is the catalyst to get them to move. (Now, I can say that I’ve only spoken with women. My instinct tells me that it may be different with men?)
In all of the cases when I spoke with these women, they were either quite happy (tolerating) to continue working (as they had no other certain idea of what to do in their life: start a business? Return to study? Look after grandkids? Learn a new skill?) however what prompted it was always a change in their job situation where they were forced out.
In my situation, I hadn’t planned to leave work for another five years. I saw that what I was doing in the area of social learning and community was important but it wasn’t seen this way in a tech company. So I left out of my own accord because I felt that my skills and knowledge weren’t the right fit for that particular company and I was tired of having to continually explain the value of my work to my peers and leadership – and to client organisations.
However it was only after I left the company, I began to see the value of what I was espousing after so many years in the corporate world. Why? Well, people who were in their 50s now, (mainly women) started seeking me out and asking me questions about what they could do for the next phase of life post-work.
I had spent my life exploring activities outside my work life: travelling, learning, volunteering, working casual jobs, writing, creating films, learning skills like knitting that now, it seemed interesting. I was being asked to help them plan what they could be doing or exploring in their post-work life.
All of a sudden Activate Learning Solutions came activating Learning for people my age who are still young enough to be in work but instead want to refocus their time to blend in with leisure, work and volunteer opportunities or whatever they want to do but who may not know what – or how – to do it.
So it’s got me thinking about this again.
Maybe Activate Learning isn’t dead.
Maybe it’s morphing to a new audience? 🤔One who is now ready, open to learn, to take in, to explore and most of all, motivated. An audience of wonderful people who have given their work lives over to companies and who now realise that with their kids grown, that their job situation where they may have felt unacknowledged, or even bored with it and who have decided it was time to look after themselves and not others.
It got me thinking that I could offer consulting services here and be able to work with a handful of people offering advice as well as my tools that I had developed over the years for corporate teams (who were never really about lifelong learning) to individuals who are in their 50-65 (pre-retirees).
One thing is for sure though. I will not go onto social media and use it to promote my services or build it into a business.
In fact, I like it to be a “word of mouth” business that I can pick and choose my clients more of a side business that I can slot around my days.
It’s what I’ve been mulling over these last few months but I’ve deliberately not made any moves or actions to get it going because I still believe that I’m in my “honeymoon” period in my post-work life. The time where I have ro set aside my feelings and thoughts about work – what’s wrong with work nowadays – and explore projects, leisure interests and activities to fill my day.
My realisation was that I had been doing this already for most of my working life: choosing learning and exploring over having kids, building a business and now, there may be an opportunity to create a side interest that also pays a bit. Maybe for my entire life, I was doing the very thing that people need to know, learn and explore now in their post-work life? 🤔
Maybe now is the time I get serious about making helping others learn my work?
Let me stew on that some more. There is time. There is still much for me to learn myself. When the time is right, I’ll jump into action and start to “spread the word” to my friends and networks; my local library and council. One step at a time.
(One of the things I’m also doing is I’ve got an idea for a book along the same lines. I’ve started hand writing the main points but I don’t want to share it here in case anyone steals the idea. If it pans out, I’ll write it all out. If not, that’s okay. What I’d really love is to write the book in the form of a story – an allegory. Something a bit Dostoyevskian. However, my talent doesn’t extend that far – unless I do a Creative Writing course first. 🤔
