by Rob Leachman
from the “Leading a Goal-Driven Life” Series
-Part V-
This Series
- What is a Goal-Driven Life? – (Part I)
- The Power of Daily Goal-Setting – (Part II)
- Using Yearly Goals to Live the Life You Desire – (Part III)
- Life Goals – Turning Your Dreams Into an Exceptional Life and Legacy (Part IV)
- “Purpose” – The Key to a Long, Healthy, and Fulfilling Life (Part V)
“You need to be careful with your husband,” she said to Bev, my wife.
There was nothing prurient or nefarious implicit in this statement, but rather an expression of concern about my well-being. We were in the heart of California wine country where Bev was attending a week-long educational conference. We were each in the middle of a career transition, having recently retired from long careers in K-12 education. Bev had been a speech and language pathologist, and I had progressed from a high school history teacher to a high school principal and then ultimately retired as a school district superintendent. Particularly for me, my career had largely consumed me and had constituted a major part of my personal identity.
On the evening before the conference began, the presenter, a nationally known educational consultant, hosted a reception which spouses and guests were invited to attend. I spoke briefly with the consultant, a delightful and personable older woman, and shared some of my educational background. She graciously suggested that I was welcome to sit in on any of the workshop sessions. I thanked her for her generous offer, though I knew that rather than attending the actual conference, I would devote my days that week to visiting some of the amazing wineries in Napa Valley and Sonoma County.
The next day, the presenter asked Bev about me, and she told her I had retired just a few weeks earlier after a thirty-year career. This was when the consultant shared with Bev her concern about my well-being in retirement and then offered the personal story that served as the basis for that worry.
Within the last few years, her husband of many years had retired following a long and successful career. He was largely defined by his career, which had consumed much of his life. He had no real hobbies, no second career aspirations, and no real plans other than to no longer work. His work had largely represented his purpose in life, and when he retired, he lost that purpose. Within six months, he had died of a brain tumor.
Though this concerned woman didn’t use this terminology, her husband had no life purpose and died shortly after leaving the job that had largely provided that purpose. And with her kind and caring attitude, she didn’t want the same fate to befall me.
Did this gentleman die of a lack of purpose in life? I’m fairly confident that never has a death certificate listed as the cause of death, a lack of life purpose. However, there is a growing body of research that supports the notion of a strong sense of purpose in life, particularly among those in the latter years of their lives, contributing to better health, longevity, and greater life satisfaction.
And can’t many of us recall individuals who retired from their careers and then were deceased within a matter of months? No doubt many such instances resulted from poor health habits and risky decisions earlier in their lives, as well as bad luck. For many, though, their careers largely were their lives, and like the gentleman described above, there was little planning or thought devoted to what their lives might look like in the weeks, months, and years after they retired.
So many either work so we don’t have to work any longer or work until we cannot or should not work any longer. We devote so much time and energy to making sure we have enough income when we stop working, believing sufficient funds will largely guarantee a rewarding retirement. Having enough money to live a comfortable post-career life is important, of course, but it’s simply not nearly enough.
Heading into retirement without a purpose, without meaning to your life, and without having a viable reason to get up every morning, can preclude the fulfilling and satisfying later lives to which we all aspire. And according to a growing body of research, it can be life-threatening as well.
“Purpose” Defined
If “purpose” is so important to our health and happiness, just what is it?
A definition widely accepted in the research community was offered by McKnight and Kashdan in a study published in 2009. They wrote, “Purpose is a central, self-organizing life aim that stimulates goals, manages behaviors, and provides a sense of meaning.” Purpose, according to this definition, motivates individuals to continue to pursue goals and gives their lives meaning.
Richard Leider, a life coach and counselor who is arguably the nation’s leading authority on the subject, defines purpose in part as “the aim around which we structure our lives, a source of direction and energy. Through the lens of purpose, we can see ourselves—and our future—more clearly.” More simplistically, and perhaps more powerfully, he suggests that your purpose is why you get out of bed in the morning. That something, which will be different for each of us, gives us excitement, gives us satisfaction, and often gives us the will to keep striving, even as we get older.
From a lighter perspective, in his book, The Power of Purpose, Leider references Avenue Q, the irreverent Broadway musical in which one of the main characters, a puppet, searches for his purpose in life. In the “Purpose” song in the musical, the character sings, “Purpose, it’s the little flame that lights a fire under your ass. Purpose, it keeps you going strong like a car with a full tank of gas.”
And for no group can this “fire under our ass” be more needed than those of us who have concluded our formal work lives.
So many in our society reach retirement age, a point in their lives they have anxiously awaited, and joyfully assume they are “done.” They can now sleep in every day, catch up on TV shows they have missed, putter around the house, and just “hang out.” As we reach a certain age, we are bombarded with societal messages suggesting we are expected to simply devote the remainder of our lives, whatever that might entail, to resting, watching endless television, having coffee with friends, and other activities that won’t unduly tax our aging minds and frail bodies. While a case can be made that each of the activities listed above is worthy of our time, in my opinion, they collectively don’t approach the type of life we can, and likely should, be leading in our retirement years.
Times have changed, and someone retiring today at sixty-two or sixty-five may live another twenty to thirty years. And from my perspective, even if they don’t live that long, they should live their lives as if they are. And while a life devoted to TV, coffee, and resting may seem attractive for a while, much time beyond that without a life purpose to pursue would seem to constitute a waste of a precious few good decades.
To me, those years after we retire, the time when we’re still vibrant but not required to work at a formal job, is not the time to rest. Rather, those are the years when we are best positioned to follow our dreams, those aspirations we have always wanted to pursue but lacked the time or means to do so. It’s our last, best opportunity to do big things.
And not only can a life purpose make our life more meaningful, but it can also make it healthier and even last longer.
The Power of “Life Purpose”
A long, healthy life and pursuing a life purpose have long been connected, at least logically. In recent years, many scientific studies have lent credence to such a correlation. Both individually and collectively, these studies provide a powerful context for the importance of purpose for people of an older age.
Many of these studies, following rigid research protocols and factoring out the impact of various socio-demographic factors like gender, education, race and ethnicity, and others, have addressed the impact of a strong sense of life purpose on different health issues. As an example, a 2013 study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research found that among older Americans, those with a strong sense of life purpose were associated with a 22% reduction in the risk of a stroke.
A 2009 study out of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago and published in the Archives of General Psychiatry studied the linkage between life purpose and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that among the nearly 1,000 participants in the study, those with the highest sense of life purpose were 2.4 times less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those with the lowest sense of life purpose. They also found a correlation between life purpose and a significantly reduced risk of cognitive decline.
Many older adults experience sleep problems, chronic conditions that have been linked to various health issues like hypertension, heart disease, cognitive decline, stroke, and depression. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine found that among a large group of participants over the age of fifty, a strong sense of life purpose was associated with a 16% reduction in the likelihood of experiencing sleep disturbances.
As individuals get older, many become increasingly frail, which can be characterized by weakness, unintended weight loss, increasing exhaustion, impaired walking and slower walking speeds, and decreased physical activity. A 2014 study out of England published in Psychological Medicine found that elderly individuals with a sense of purpose in their lives were less likely to develop frailty.
We could go on. And to be clear, each of these studies found a correlational rather than a causal connection between a sense of purpose and each of these maladies. (As an example, there was no finding that a strong sense of life purpose prevented strokes, just that those individuals who had a purpose were less likely to suffer such a condition.) And it is not for us to try to determine why these connections exist. But we can draw some logical conclusions. For example, a 2014 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that among American men and women over the age of fifty, the stronger the sense of life purpose, the greater the likelihood of accessing preventive health care services (cholesterol test, colonoscopy, pap smear or mammogram for females, or prostate exam for men). Why would an individual with a strong sense of purpose be more apt to seek these preventive procedures? Does their sense of purpose give them a stronger desire to stay healthy so they can continue to pursue that purpose, whatever it may be? Or does the fact that they have a life purpose, in and of itself, increase their desire to continue living a healthy and productive life? Regardless, to me, the body of research is incredibly powerful.
According to other studies, the impact of a strong sense of life purpose transcended other areas of the lives of older adults. As an example, a large study of over 7,000 British participants over the age of fifty completed by two researchers from University College London, investigated the linkage between living a meaningful life (i.e. one with a sense of purpose) and a variety of positive life attributes. Simply stated, they found that a strong sense of purpose is associated with a longer, healthier, and happier life. Specifically, they found that those living meaningful lives had stronger relationships, broader social engagement, less loneliness, greater prosperity, better physical and mental health, and more time devoted to social activities and exercise and less time spent alone or watching television.
Not only can you reduce your risk of various health maladies through the pursuit of a life purpose, but you can live a better and more enjoyable life as well. It would seem logical, then, that an outgrowth of these positive outcomes of a life lived toward a purpose would be longer lives. Now, there is a growing body of research confirming that connection. As an example, a 2014 study published in Psychological Science found that having a sense of purpose in your life may directly help you live longer. As Patrick Hill, lead researcher of the study, commented, “Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve, can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose.” He stresses not only the finding of that purpose but also setting goals toward fulfilling that purpose. Hill specifically addresses the importance of purpose for older adults, suggesting, “There are a lot of reasons to believe that being purposeful might help protect older adults more than younger ones. For instance, adults might need a sense of direction more after they have left the workplace and lost that source for organizing their daily events. In addition, older adults are more likely to face mortality risks than younger adults.”
An even more explicit finding regarding the linkage between life purpose and lower mortality rates among older adults resulted from a major 2019 study published in JAMA Network Open of the American Medication Association. Among the nearly 7,000 study participants, all over fifty with an average age of sixty-eight, researchers found that those who didn’t have a strong life purpose were more likely to die during the time span of the study than those who did. In fact, during the four years when data were originally being gathered, participants who did not have a strong life purpose were more than twice as likely to die than those with the strongest sense of life purpose.
Clearly, this body of research lends credence to the notion that we have too much to lose by wandering aimlessly through our post-retirement years. Exercising, eating healthy foods, reducing stress, getting enough sleep, and other practices may contribute to a longer and healthier life; finding a life purpose in our older years and pursuing goals toward that purpose may have as much impact on the length and quality of life as any of these healthy habits.
Viktor Frankl and “Man’s Search for Meaning”
One of the most tragically inspirational stories to come out of the horrors of World War II was that of Viktor Frankl. And though much of his research was more observational rather than quantitative, such as in the studies described earlier, Frankl’s experiences and the theories and practices they inspired have made him a foundational force in the movement promoting the importance of life purpose.
Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who had been born into a Jewish family in Vienna. Though he authored nearly forty books, by far the most famous and most widely impactful was Man’s Search for Meaning. This relatively short but powerful work, which Frankl wrote in only nine days, describes his experiences in Nazi concentration camps and details logotherapy, the psychological theory and approach that, in large part, resulted from those experiences.
In 1942, while serving as the head of the neurology department at a Vienna hospital and still a virtual newlywed, Frankl and his family were rounded up by the Nazis and sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where Frankl became simply known as #119,104. In the three years Frankl labored in Nazi camps, each member of his family either died of starvation or illness or was killed in the gas chambers. Through his time in the camps, Frankl lost his family, his identity, the scientific manuscript that contained much of his life’s work, and could have lost his life at any time.
Of course, he didn’t lose his life in the camps, and he came away from that horrific experience with many lessons, two in particular that contributed to the development of logotherapy. First, though the Nazis had taken virtually everything from him, there was one thing they could not take: his ability to determine how he would react to the situation in which he found himself. As Frankl wrote, “. . . everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
As a trained psychiatrist, Frankl was a keen observer of the behaviors of those around him. And he found countless examples of prisoners who acted in ways contrary to their character, almost always in an effort at self-preservation. In every camp, prisoners were placed in positions of authority, like trustees in a traditional prison. To maintain their authority and privilege, these Capos, as Frankl called them, were often much more brutal toward their fellow prisoners than were the Nazi guards. More common, Frankl noted fellow prisoners, individuals he otherwise knew to be good and decent men in their pre-concentration camp lives, who betrayed their friends in the barracks simply to gain an extra scrap of bread, a scoop of soup from the bottom of the pot (where the peas had settled), or to just survive another day.
The second lesson is even more closely related to the importance of life purpose. Frankl found that when prisoners lost hope and ceased pursuing a goal or some overlying purpose, they most often soon died. As he wrote, “the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect.” Those who lost their purpose, their goals in life, their reason for getting up each morning, more often than not, were dead within a matter of days given the harsh conditions in the camps.
On the other hand, he found that prisoners with a purpose, with a goal to strive for, who still believed their life had meaning, were much more apt to survive the brutality and unhealthiness of the camps. Finding this meaning, he believed, was critical to helping his fellow prisoners stay alive. As he wrote, “. . . any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal.” He then quoted the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who suggested, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” The most profound goal didn’t protect every prisoner from death by illness or extermination. But without a purpose, they were virtually destined to die.
His experiences in the concentration camps were a foundation of Viktor Frankl’s theories about human behavior and greatly contributed to the development of “logotherapy.” He wrote, “Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation of his life . . .” He suggested that mental health is “based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish.” To Frankl, this tension provides a huge motivational force that not only pushes us to accomplish more, but also gives meaning and purpose to life.
During our employment years, that tension motivates us to keep working to provide for ourselves and our families. It also prods many to strive for career advancement, higher compensation, or sometimes for work that we find more meaningful (i.e. higher non-monetary compensation). But once we retire and our careers have concluded, so many of us lose that tension and the motivation it provided us. Even if we went to work each day at a job we disliked just so we could pay our bills, we experienced real tension that motivated us to get up every morning. Without that tension, without a life purpose to pursue, without that motivation to get up every morning, there might come a time when we might, literally or figuratively, decide to stop getting up in the morning.
Implications of “Life Purpose” Research
We have extensively discussed scientific studies about the impact of life purpose on different aspects of our health and longevity, about the horrors of Nazi concentration camps and the lessons that experience taught one of the preeminent psychological minds of the twentieth century, and about the “tension” that psychiatrist found to be such a powerful motivational force for all of us. But what does all that mean for the average individual?
To me, all of that evidence simply reinforces the notion that at any age, everyone needs a life purpose and goals to strive to attain. And at no stage in life is that more important than in the last quarter of our lives, those years after we have stopped formally working.
Regardless of any formal or light-hearted definition, to me, life purpose gives us the drive to keep on striving and it gives us the satisfaction that accompanies continued achievement. It provides the motivation that comes with the opportunity to fulfill lifelong dreams, activities we always wanted to complete but unfortunately could not while working at our formal jobs. And it can give us the relevance so many are trying to maintain after transitioning from long and successful careers.
As we move into the last phase of our lives, some are content to do little more than rest and relax. At my current age of sixty-six, I can attest to the value and pleasure associated with taking a nap, watching a TV show, reading a book, and other restful and relaxing activities. But my message here is that for most of us, as we enter our later years, rest and relaxation are simply not enough. Again, in my mind, our retirement years are a time for us, to the degree we are physically and mentally able, to spread our wings and fly, pursue our dreams, and take advantage of the newfound freedom that comes from no longer needing to devote our time and energy to our careers.
Spreading our wings and pursuing our dreams go hand-in-hand with finding and pursuing our life purpose.
Finding Your Life Purpose
Entire books have been written that focus on life purpose and how to find it. Richard Leider’s The Power of Purpose: Find Meaning. Live Longer is an excellent example. As such, a detailed discussion about how to identify one’s life purpose is beyond the scope of this article. Identifying life purpose in conjunction with a younger individual seeking a career that is fulfilling is also not our focus here.
Here, we are concerned with older individuals living a rich, fulfilling, and meaningful post-retirement life, and believe having a purpose in life is critical to reaching that goal.
Still, for someone who has retired or is approaching retirement, honest reflection on the following questions may help identify your life purpose:
- What are some activities you have always wanted to pursue?
- Are there activities you dreamed about, read about, or researched when you were younger, but didn’t pursue them because you didn’t have the time or lacked the needed resources?
- What strengths or gifts do you have that you have never fully utilized?
- Do you feel compelled to utilize your strengths and gifts to better the world? In what areas might you have interest in doing that?
- What is an activity that interests you and would push you (physically, mentally, emotionally), but that you could ultimately complete?
- What is an activity that interests you and that you would be particularly proud to complete?
- Did you enjoy working in your career, finding your work to be satisfying and, in terms of stress levels, manageable? If yes, are there part-time positions in your field that might interest you?
For many people, their life purpose is obvious and can be determined with minimal thought or reflection. But if you are unclear about the activities to which you want to devote your later years, I recommend you spend some quiet time pondering and jotting down responses to these questions. Some possible answers to the question of your post-retirement life purpose will often become quickly apparent.
It is essential to remember that everyone’s life purpose is acutely individual and will be different for each person. Taking up mountain climbing, or learning and traveling to speak Italian, or volunteering for several months each year at a national park, or any of a multitude of pursuits, simply because your best friend urged you to do so, may be fun and enjoyable in the short term. But it probably won’t speak to your soul and be satisfying over time. These must be highly personal decisions if you want to pursue your life purpose.
What Does This Look Like in Real Life?
Though each individual’s life purpose will be different, the following hypothetical examples describe what this might look like in post-retirement life:
Phyllis, 67, retired after a very successful forty-year career working as an accountant, ultimately becoming a partner in her large firm. With very few exceptions, she loved her work, the camaraderie she developed with her co-workers, and the energy in the office. From a young age, she loved working with numbers, and her mathematical skills helped lead her to the accounting profession. She might have continued working past sixty-five, but she increasingly came to dread the long commute to her office in the downtown section of a major city. After retiring, she took a couple of long vacations with her husband before deciding she needed to, as she put it, “figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up.”
She began working two afternoons each week as a math tutor at a middle school in her community. She finds that working with adolescents is exhausting but incredibly rewarding. Plus, she adds, “They keep me young.” Additionally, she contacted the local senior citizen center and offered her volunteer services to its members. One day each week, she offers financial advice to her fellow seniors at the center, working on budgeting issues, estate planning, and tax preparation, which makes Phyllis very popular at the center each spring. She enjoys the interactions she experiences at the senior center and finds that work and the tutoring to be very rewarding and gratifying. She and her husband still take occasional vacations, but she doesn’t like to be away from the middle school or the senior center for too long at a time.
For at least the next few years, Phyllis has found her post-retirement life purpose.
Fred, 64, retired early from his long career as an over-the-road truck driver. He largely enjoyed his time on the road and liked the solitude of trucking, yet developed some good friendships at the many truck stops he often frequented. But he increasingly yearned for more time with his wife, and he hated missing so many of his grandkids’ activities. Eventually, his chronic back issues were made worse by his long hours sitting in his truck, and the pain eventually became unbearable. With his pension and their Social Security, he and his wife could get by, though some additional income would be needed to maintain their current lifestyle.
Over the years, Fred had built a nice woodshop in his basement, and he enjoyed puttering around making various wooden creations. He took special pride in the wooden bowls he crafted and often offered them as gifts to friends and members of his family. One day, a good friend of his commented, “You ought to sell these.” Fred demurred, suggesting that nobody would pay good money for these bowls. But it got him wondering if the demand for his wooden bowls might be greater than he thought.
A few months after retiring, Fred decided to give the wooden bowl business a try. It’s a low-key operation, barely a business at all, but Fred has been gratified by the response. The financial return hasn’t been huge, but after just a year, he had earned enough for him and his wife to take their grandchildren on a nice vacation.
But to Fred, the benefit transcends financial gain. Even after creating hundreds of bowls, he still feels a sense of satisfaction with each finished product. He can’t wait to get to his woodshop each morning; Fred has found his purpose, his reason to get up every day.
Harriett, 68, had retired nine years ago after a long career as a high school teacher and coach. She had always been health-conscious and active, eating a healthy diet and staying active. As family and school requirements allowed, through the years, she had completed yoga and Pilates classes and taken occasional bicycle rides. And though she could never go more than a couple of miles, Harriett got particular joy and satisfaction from the short runs she occasionally took. She loved the freedom she felt while jogging, the wind blowing through her hair, and the sense of satisfaction she felt after even a short run. She always lamented that she couldn’t run longer and more often.
With their pensions and savings, Harriett and her husband had the resources to live a comfortable retirement life and didn’t have to continue working for economic reasons. After she stopped working, she read a lot of books, went to the movies, regularly had lunch with her teacher friends, and when asked, babysat their grandchildren. But something was missing, and she soon found herself in a bit of a funk. She missed the drive she had felt as a teacher and coach. She knew she needed a change.
Since she retired, Harriett had inexplicably become less active than when she had been working. Then, one morning about six months after retiring, she went for a run. She only went a mile-and-a-half that first day, but even though she struggled to get back home at the end of that run, she otherwise felt really good, mentally and physically. The next day, she ran that same course and found it to be a little easier. The following day, she went two miles. Harriett’s muscles were sore, but she felt more alive than she had in a long time.
Then one day, a strange thought entered her mind. Even though she could barely complete a three-mile run, she wondered if she could ever complete a twenty-six-mile marathon, something she had wanted to do since she was in her twenties. She had the natural doubts many in her position might have. Wasn’t she crazy for thinking she could run that far? At sixty, wasn’t she way too old to aspire to such a bold accomplishment? She had worked so long and so hard so she could have a “relaxing” retirement, so why should she start to work so hard to reach this outlandish goal? She could relate to each of these questions, but the thought of trying to do this got her excited and put a smile on her face. She started researching training plans and she joined a local running club where she met new friends. She began each morning with her daily run and looked forward to the start of each day. Harriett had literally found her reason to get out of bed. After these morning runs, drenched in sweat as she drank a cup of coffee on her patio, she thought with anticipation about the next day’s run. She was driven, she was happy, and her age wasn’t a factor in either of these sensations. And as she extended her long run to seven miles, then ten miles, and then even farther, the pride and satisfaction she felt only grew.
A year later, Harriett completed her first marathon, slowly (She said they had to time her with a sundial), but with a smile on her face. Her second marathon just four months later was quite a bit faster, as was the third three months after that. To date, she has finished twelve marathons (along with countless shorter races) and regularly competes for age-group titles.
If Harriett had bought into the notion of retired people needing to just “rest and relax,” none of this would have been possible and she likely would still be in a “funk.” By finding her post-retirement life purpose, and setting goals to help her fulfill that purpose, she has found herself in the most satisfying and enjoyable chapter of her life. And, as Harriett would tell you, she’s “just getting going.”
Jim, 66, spent nearly forty years working his way up through various levels of management in the construction company that hired him right out of college. He worked hard, with a lot of nights and weekends away from his family, as he ultimately became the senior vice president of the company. He and his wife, Joan, a retired school counselor, had rationalized their hard work and sacrifices by planning for their lives in retirement. They would travel the world, hiking to Machu Picchu, touring the Louvre in Paris, rafting through the Grand Canyon, and touring game preserves in Africa. When they were together, they often discussed their post-career plans and longed for the time when they could put those plans into action.
Then, when Jim was sixty and Joan was two years younger, she started experiencing bouts of confusion and confounding memory loss. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the doctors told them that Joan would continue to decline until she ultimately lost her battle with the disease, a grueling years-long process. When Joan could no longer take care of herself or even be left alone, Jim opted to retire earlier than they had planned. For the past four years, he has devoted virtually every waking hour to caring for his beloved wife. Though he never complains or expresses any regrets, privately, Jim laments what might have been and how their dreams of traveling the world together would never come to fruition. Though he never used this terminology, Jim had been so sure of his post-retirement life purpose, and with Joan’s diagnosis, all the plans and goals they had spent so much time developing had suddenly become irrelevant.
To me, Jim’s story is both tragic and poignant. And as with countless other couples, his devotion to his life partner is sweet and laudable. While it is sad that the life purpose he and Joan had so meticulously identified and prepared for will never become a reality, Jim has found a purpose (or more accurately, it found him) far more powerful and with longer-lasting meaning than traveling the world. For an unknown number of years to come, Jim will have a most noble reason to get out of bed each morning. And when Joan’s battle ultimately ends, he will look back on their time together with absolutely no regrets, which in life can be a rare gift.
Though the last story is an outlier, a tale of a man whose life purpose was unexpectedly presented to him, the others have a common thread. In each, the individual was struggling as she or he led an unsatisfying post-retirement life in which rest and relaxation were simply insufficient. Then, each found their own spark, an activity that formed the core of a rich and robust life that pushed the limits of what each might have expected.
In the classic movie, The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne, the character played by Tim Robbins, famously said, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” To varying degrees, the individuals described in these vignettes had been “busy dying,” acquiescing to the common notion that they had reached the age when their lives were on an inevitable downward trajectory. With a simple but oh-so-significant change in focus, each had gotten “busy living,” and suddenly, all of them had a powerful reason to get out of bed each morning. It’s the power of pursuing a life purpose in our later years, the time when our unfulfilled dreams and aspirations can still be reached.
My Story
As those who are familiar with my background may know, I retired in 2009 from my initial career in K-12 education. Under the very good public school retirement system in the state in which I had worked, individuals could retire with full benefits after thirty years of eligible service. As I began working in the system at twenty-one, I was eligible to retire with full benefits at fifty-one, with those generous benefits continuing for the rest of my life. For the last twenty-two of my thirty-year career, I had served in different administrative positions, ultimately retiring as a school district superintendent. It was satisfying but very stressful, time-consuming, and exhausting work. As a result, after thirty years, I was tired and ready to move in a different direction. So, when I became eligible to retire, I jumped at the chance to do so. Though I was positioned financially so that I didn’t have to continue working, I wanted to do so, though at a much slower pace.
The process of a school district filling a superintendent position is more complex than any other position in K-12 education. I had privately informed the Board of Education of my retirement plans at least two years earlier but had not publicly announced my intentions. To give the board time to select a search firm, complete their search, and hopefully hire the next superintendent before other similar districts had tapped into a shrinking pool of good candidates, I offered my retirement letter in August before I would end my tenure the following June. When I announced my retirement, I did so with no definitive new position on the horizon. I had taught graduate-level courses for two area universities and hoped to continue in some related higher education position, but the future was murky, at best.
As spring arrived and with my retirement just a few months in the future, nothing had materialized. I recall a conversation with Bev, my wife, regarding my still minor but growing frustration. I said to her, “I want you to know I’m not done yet.” I realized, as did my supportive wife who was also preparing for her own transition from K-12 education, that I considered myself too young to stop working and that I still had impactful contributions I hoped to make. I realized that, though we would be okay financially if I didn’t continue to work, I needed to do something simply to maintain my life satisfaction and self-worth. Though I didn’t think about this terminology at the time, I needed a new life purpose.
Then, in mid-April, I learned that, after a very competitive process for which I had originally had little hope of success, I had been selected for a position with the largest university in our region. It was a multi-faceted role that allowed me to serve as the director of a satellite location for the university’s School of Education, with my new office located just a ten-minute drive from our home. I would coordinate the activities of this branch of the university and serve as the academic advisor for the graduate students enrolled at this location. Additionally, I would become a part of the educational leadership division of the School of Education and teach courses to individuals seeking careers in district-level administration. Within a matter of days, I had gone from growing concern about my future to securing a position that closely matched my interests and skill set. I served in this and a related position with the university for six years and continued teaching online courses for two years after that. It was a distinct highlight of my career. The position provided an additional blessing in that, with a much slower pace than I had experienced before retiring from K-12 work, it allowed me to gradually transition into retirement. As Bev had also moved into a higher education position in her field, we suddenly had more time for fitness-related activities and the exploration of other adventures.
As those who have perused other articles in this series may understand, finding a post-retirement life purpose was, for me, simplified by the goal-setting process I have followed for well over three decades and which I still follow in my late sixties. Decades ago, I began setting daily, yearly, and life goals which have provided tremendous guidance to my life and have enhanced my productivity. (And yes, I not only believe it is appropriate for someone my age to set and work toward meeting goals, I believe it is essential.) So much of what has highlighted my post-retirement life can be linked back to the life goals I have established and modified since I was in my early thirties.
Additionally, earlier in this series, I described a vision board activity I completed (with little enthusiasm at the time), but which, in retrospect, has come to represent a visual representation of what I have done since originally retiring over fifteen years ago. I was two years from retiring and had a general idea of what I hoped my post-retirement life might look like based on the life goals I had established. But still mired in the day-to-day stress of my career, I had not devoted sufficient thought to what the next chapter of my life might entail. Like the puppet in Avenue Q, at that point in my life, I needed a “little fire under my ass” to shift my focus.
I had been hesitant to complete this visual representation of what I wanted my future to look like and then share it with others in the class we were taking. But, of course, I did. Amazingly, virtually everything I included on that vision board has become a reality. I included teaching at the collegiate level, researching and writing books, completing adventure travel trips, and maintaining strong connections with my family. To an item, this vision board foretold my future. Perhaps more accurately, this vision board created my future.
After retiring from K-12 work, Bev and I renewed our focus on fitness, activities we had neglected during our hectic careers and as we were raising our two children. We started running again, purchased hybrid bikes to replace our old road bikes we had not ridden for years, and regularly completed weight training sessions at an area gym. It felt great to place renewed emphasis on our own well-being.
In 2013, we completed our first “adventure travel” trip, biking 260 miles across Missouri on the “Katy Trail,” a rails-to-trails conversion trail running along the Missouri River. Traveling alone, we carried everything with us as we worked our way from one old hotel or bed-and-breakfast to the next. It was an amazing experience and one that made us appreciate the power of these longer, physical journeys. Two years later, we joined seven other hikers and two guides as we completed a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon. I had long been fascinated with this natural wonder, and our five days hiking from the north to the south rim allowed us to experience the Canyon in a profoundly up-close manner.
These adventure trips served multiple purposes for two people on the cusp of full retirement. They allowed us to address personal goals that had been established years earlier. They allowed us to push ourselves physically and mentally beyond what we had previously experienced. They brought focus to our fitness regimen, giving us the impetus to train in a way that would allow us to complete each trip as painlessly and pleasantly as possible.
And they made us realize that when we retired, when we had the resources and additional time, we wanted (more likely needed) more of these experiences. Preparing for and completing these adventure travel excursions would become a significant part of our life purpose.
On my list of life goals, and one that Bev would eventually aspire to as well, was completing a cross-country bicycle trip. While we had done some longer bike rides, we were not accomplished riders and were recreational bikers at best. So, as we pondered the possibility of riding our bicycles 3,000 miles across the southern United States at the age of sixty, the notion seemed more and more outrageous. But we trained for a year, committed to the trip, and in the fall of 2017, joined seven other riders and two support guides as we rode from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida. It was arduous, and for the first few days, we doubted we could make it all the way to Florida. But we completed our journey, reached our goal, and in the process, had six-and-a-half of the best weeks of our lives.
We craved more experiences like this one. But then some health issues, and then Covid, and then some more health issues, intervened. As the world opened back up, though, we began to consider what challenge we wanted to tackle next.
Biking the Katy Trail, traversing the Grand Canyon, and completing a cross-country bicycle ride had originally been goals and dreams of mine; each had been included not only on my list of life goals, but also on the vision board I completed a couple of years before retiring. A dream of Bev’s, and one I came to share, was hiking across northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago, one of the oldest and most famous pilgrimage routes in the world. As we pondered whether to tackle this adventure, there were many rational reasons we shouldn’t have even tried. In the fall of 2023, when we planned to complete this trip, we would both be sixty-six, an age when many believed old people like us completing long hikes in a foreign country to be crazy. We were unfamiliar with the Spanish culture and, despite our efforts to gain proficiency, we spoke little of the Spanish language. And to add to the plethora of reasons we had no business even attempting this arduous journey, we would be completely on our own as we walked through large Spanish cities and secluded parts of the Spanish countryside. We did it anyway.
It was a tough journey, possibly the most challenging mentally and physically that we have encountered. Immersing ourselves in the Spanish culture for a month-and-a-half, not to mention the daily hikes that averaged nearly thirteen miles over consistently challenging terrain, took us far outside of our comfort zone. But it was an amazing experience, and one we would have missed had we allowed our doubts and subtle, societally imposed limits to supersede our quest for adventure.
And like with some of our earlier adventure travel trips, we devoted the better part of a year to preparing, researching, planning, and training for our Camino hike. Though we maintained our family responsibilities and continued our pursuit of other interests, during this time, hiking the Camino de Santiago represented a large part of our life purpose, our reason to get up each day.
For me, one of those “other interests” and an increasingly important part of each day, has been writing and research. One of my life goals has been to “write and publish a book.” Around 2017, with the help of our daughter, Annie, I developed a website (robleachman.com) on which I could post the various writings I had completed. For the past several years, I have written and posted many long-form articles dealing with areas that interest me (and hopefully interest others). These articles have focused on the history of track and field, goal-setting and leadership, and accounts of some of the various adventure travel trips we have completed. Given the research required, many of these articles require several months to complete. But as I am writing about areas of interest to me, I genuinely look forward each day to continuing whatever project I am working on.
In 2021, I published my first book, One Ride at a Time: Life Lessons Learned on a Cross-Country Bicycle Ride. The book details the joys and tragedies we experienced as we rode our bikes across the southern United States and the lessons we learned in the process. Writing the book and then navigating through the complex publication process was a true labor of love. Multiple other book projects are at different stages of development.
As I had hoped it would, writing has become a major part of my post-career life purpose.
Finally, when I developed that vision board for my post-retirement life over fifteen years ago, I placed at the center of all the activities a photo of our family, Bev, me, and our two children who were still in high school at the time. Whatever we did after our careers had ended, wherever life took us, I wanted to make sure that we remained emotionally and hopefully physically close to our children and their families.
Over time, our daughter and then our son and his wife and two children (as of now, our only two grandchildren) moved to Chicago to continue their careers. The distance posed challenges to our remaining close to our family, and we regularly traveled the 500 miles from our home in Missouri to Chicago to see them. I had lived in Missouri my entire life, and Bev had lived there for over forty years. But because our hearts were with our family in another state, in 2022, we moved to the Chicago suburbs to be close to our children and especially our grandchildren. Being a part of their lives has become another important part of our life purpose.
I would never suggest that our post-retirement lives have been flawless or perfect. But we have taken steps to define what we want our future to look like and then actively worked to bring those visions to life, challenging ourselves every step of the way. Our days don’t always work out the way we might prefer. And I can attest to having ample opportunities to watch TV, take a nap, scroll through social media, and complete other activities that might be considered innocuous. But most days we push ourselves, physically as well as mentally, and my greatest frustration at the end of many days is that I didn’t meet all the daily goals I had set for myself, that I didn’t accomplish as much as I had hoped.
My point in all of this is that, from my perspective, our post-retirement years are a time of opportunity, a point in our lives when we have the time and resources to pursue the dreams we may have had for decades. I first dreamed of writing a book when I was in my twenties, but family and professional commitments made that virtually impossible. Forty years later, when time and resources were far less of an issue, I published my first book. We first seriously thought about trekking across the Grand Canyon, biking across the country, and hiking the Camino de Santiago when we were in our thirties. But then we had kids, and careers, and a mortgage, and responsibilities that would have made the pursuit of these life goals seem almost selfish. Fast forward thirty years and we had the time and resources, and still had the drive and desire, to make these dreams a reality. As a result, during this “time of opportunity,” we took that opportunity and ran with it. At a time when society is sending us so many signals suggesting that it’s time to rest, that we should be “done” striving to pursue challenging goals, our lives have been exponentially enhanced because we have largely ignored those signals.
Key Takeaways
In this article, we have discussed the connection between having a life purpose and living a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life. The key points regarding this critical issue include:
- As individuals enter their post-retirement years, all too many consider that time to be one that should be devoted to rest and relaxation, with little effort applied toward pursuing goals that are important to us. This time without a “life purpose,” a reason to get out of bed each morning, may for a while seem appealing. But over time, many find such a relaxed life to be largely unsatisfying.
- There is a growing body of research linking the lack of a life purpose among older adults to significant increases in health risks related to conditions like stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, sleep issues, and other health issues. Individuals with a strong sense of life purpose have a much greater tendency to take preventive action to protect their health and are simply less apt to die during a given period of time when compared to individuals with a low sense of life purpose. Simply stated, a strong sense of purpose is associated with a longer, healthier, and happier life.
- People most typically gravitate to their life purpose. They can look to long-held goals, both written and unwritten, that remain unfulfilled as they ponder their post-retirement life purpose. Most know intuitively what goals they want to work toward. Otherwise, some questions can guide the process.
- Our older years can be viewed as a “time of opportunity” to do things, often challenging things, we have long wanted to accomplish but previously lacked the time and resources. If we still have those same goals and dreams, our post-retirement life is for many a time when those limitations are no longer present.
Even in our later years, we should still strive to live the life we truly desire, whatever that may look like for each of us. To me, that’s a rich and bold life that’s unencumbered by societal limitations and our own self-doubts. It’s what we deserve.
Just because we’re getting older, just because society sends us messages suggesting we as “old people” should devote our time to less consequential and rather innocuous activities, doesn’t mean we should stop striving to meet goals that are important to us. Our post-retirement years are our last great opportunity to reach the big goals of our lives. We need a life purpose that speaks to us and that addresses our goals and interests. After a lifetime of hard work, we certainly deserve our share of rest and relaxation. But for many of us, we need challenge and a sense of satisfaction in our daily lives. In essence, even in our older years, we need a life purpose that motivates us, gets us enthused about our days, and “lights a fire under our ass.”
References
Alimujiang, A., Wiensch, A., et al., 2019, “Association Between Life Purpose and Mortality Among US Adults Older Than 50 Years,” JAMA Network Open, May 24, 2019
Association for Psychological Science, “Having a Sense of Purpose May Add Years to your Life,” May 12, 2014,
Berger, R., 2017, “Aging in America: Ageism and General Attitudes Toward Growing Old and the Elderly,” Open Journal of Social Sciences, 183-198
Boyle, P., Buchman, A., Barnes, L. and Bennett, D., 2010, “Effect of a Purpose in Life on Risk of Incident Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Community-Dwelling Older Persons,” Archives of General Psychiatry, March 2010, 304-310
Cohen, R., Bavishi, C., and Rozanski, A., 2016, “Purpose in Life and Its Relationship to All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Events: A Meta-Analysis, Psychosomatic Medicine, February/March 2016, 122-133
Frankl, V., Man’s Search for Meaning, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984
Gale, C., Cooper, C. Deary, I. J., and Sayer, A., 2013, “Psychological Well-Being and Incident Frailty in Men and Women,” Psychological Medicine, May 2013, 427-432
Hill, P. and Turiano, N., 2014, “Purpose in Life as a Predictor of Mortality Across Adulthood,” Psychological Science, July 2014, 1482-1486
Kim, E., Sun, J., Park, N., and Peterson, C., 2013, “Purpose in Life and Reduced Incidence of Stroke in Older Adults,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research, May 2013, 427-432
Kim, E., Strecher V., and Ryff, C., 2014, “Purpose in Life and Use of Preventive Health Care Services,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 18, 2014, 16331-16336
Kim, E., Hershner, S., and Strecher, V., 2015, “Purpose in Life and Incidence of Sleep Disturbances,” Journal of Behavioral Medicine, June 2015, 590-597
Leider, R. and Shapiro, D., 2008, Something to Live For: Finding Your Way in the Second Half of Life, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
Leider, R., 2015, The Power of Purpose: Find Meaning, Live Longer, Better, Oakland: Berrett-Koehler
McKnight, P. and Kashdan, T., 2009, “Purpose in Life as a System That Creates and Sustains Health and Well-Being,” Review of General Psychology, 242-251
Ng, R., 2021, “Societal Age Stereotypes in the U.S. and U.K. from a Media Database of 1.1 Billion Words,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, August 21, 2021
Steptoe, A. and Fancourt, D., 2019, “Leading a Meaningful Life at Older Ages and its Relationship with Social Engagement, Prosperity, Health, Biology, and Time Use,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 7, 2019, 1207-1212
