Publié De: K.D Cameron

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By Lee Swanson

I recently entered what I will call “semi-retirement,” reducing my daily obligations while still keeping a hand in the businesses that I’ve built over the last 40 years. To be honest, it hasn’t been easy, and initially I was quite apprehensive about pulling back.

“You’ll love retirement!” friends and colleagues told me. “You’ll have time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor!” This is what everyone says about retirement. But I wasn’t so sure. I’ve seen others who seem to just go downhill upon leaving the workforce; but I’ve also watched others thrive on their newfound freedom. I just wasn’t sure on which side of the fence I would land.

After a few months, I’m pleased to report that I am quite content with my semi-retired life. No surprise to those who view retirement as the holy grail of happiness. If you’re in that camp, you might scratch your head at this new study I ran across, a study that confirms scientifically that retirement makes life more enjoyable. “Tell us something we don’t know!” people say. “Why do you need a study to confirm this?”

It’s an understandable question, but the study is really interesting and sheds light not just on the fact that retirement does in fact yield greater happiness, but how and why this is so. It’s not that people are happier because they get to do what they want, when they want. It’s actually because, in retirement, we tend to find even the little things we do every day—chores, exercise, socializing, even driving—more enjoyable than we did when we were working 40 hours or more each week.

Most relevant to my own experience is the finding that those in the study who continued to work after retirement reported a much greater level of enjoyment in work than they felt pre-retirement. The pressure is off; we’re working because we want to not because we have to.

Research has shown that our subjective feelings of happiness and fulfillment greatly influence our health and well-being. In general, the happier we are, the healthier we are. As I reduce my work hours and slowly embrace retirement, I feel both happier and healthier. And now that I’ve got scientific evidence behind me, I’m even more secure in my decision to slow down and take time to smell the roses. I hope you, too, find the same sense of wellbeing when you reach your retirement.

As always, I wish you the very best of health,

Lee Swanson