Don’t Retire. Repurpose

I have worked a job since I was 12 years old.

My first job was painting the horse fencing around my dad’s 900-acre horse farm in Pennsylvania. I was paid 25 cents an hour. In high school I worked at a nursing home as the breakfast and lunch cook.

  After college, I secured a plumb position in Dr. James Watson’s (yes, the DNA guy) lab at Harvard, working for a young professor named Mark Ptashne. While there, I was able to take business courses.

Eventually settling in Vermont, I secured a job at the local hospital.

Then I spent five years raising my two young children and getting them to grade school. From there, at the age of 33, I landed at Main Street Landing, a company dedicated to the redevelopment of Burlington, VT., waterfront. I became their chief executive officer for the next 40 years.

That is 62 years of my life working to serve others. I have no complaints. As much as I was ready, the transition was challenging and frightening. That final day packing up my things and shutting the door on 40 years of my life, well it cut me to the quick and I felt adrift.

Retirement is such an inappropriate word for determining how we spend our days. Retire means to withdraw.

So, my first line of defense was to redefine my new situation and I chose to use the word “repurpose.” I planned to repurpose myself and reach out and expand.

I would find new and exciting challenges. I would now take all the time I devoted to working for others and own my time to do all the things I had put off.

I realized that one of the biggest challenges was to remain relevant … not to other folks, but to myself. How do I create a worthy and meaningful next chapter that excites, invigorates and inspires?

By the time I repurposed, the calls started coming in. People reached out to me to join them and participate—to get involved in their exciting goings-on.

That summer I took my entire family to Spain for two weeks to celebrate my new-found freedom and when I returned I decided to work with my husband at his film company as his executive producer.

We have six projects in the works. I had been told that when you repurpose, your life becomes super busy, and you wonder how you did anything when you worked a full-time job. This is true, very true.

When I wake up in the morning I say to myself, “what shall I do today that gives me purpose”? This is what repurposing one’s life is; it is owning your time to do the things that bring value to your life and the lives of others.

That might mean having a long lunch with an old friend, working on a new History & Culture Center, saving the nesting geese in the wetlands, writing commentary for web sites like this one, testifying in the legislature, joining a social justice movement or just sitting outside feeling the sun on your face (which are all things I am doing).

A professional life of duty and dedication to the well-being and success of others is noble. But I promise you that once you repurpose—when you take that leap—all of life’s marvelous magical moments will be bestowed upon you.

So, take the leap—you are going to love the landing.