How Should I Think About the Deep Life in Retirement?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.340 | All right.

00:00:06.340 | We have a question here from Jenny.

00:00:08.840 | Jenny says, how do you suspect that you're

00:00:10.640 | thinking about living a deep life will change in retirement?

00:00:16.400 | Well, I don't think it will change at all.

00:00:21.040 | And what I mean by that is I don't think my general framework

00:00:25.000 | for thinking about the deep life has

00:00:27.000 | to change in any substantial way as you shift from full-time work

00:00:32.120 | to retirement.

00:00:34.480 | The decisions and activities that this framework generates

00:00:37.480 | will, of course, change as you shift from full-time work

00:00:40.600 | to retirement.

00:00:41.560 | So just as a reminder, my framework for the deep life

00:00:44.680 | says you identify the buckets that

00:00:46.560 | are important to you and your life

00:00:48.120 | and your vision of a life well-lived,

00:00:49.660 | and you give each of these buckets independent attention.

00:00:53.840 | You start with keystone habits, and then you

00:00:55.840 | overhaul that part of your life.

00:00:57.280 | And so you make sure that you're seeing holistically

00:00:59.840 | all the elements of your life that are important

00:01:01.360 | and that you're giving intention to each of those

00:01:03.400 | and making sure that they have a expression in your life

00:01:07.320 | and they're an important part of your life.

00:01:09.240 | So what happens when you retire?

00:01:11.400 | It just changes what you're doing in some of those buckets.

00:01:15.120 | In particular, you have what I call the craft bucket,

00:01:18.000 | the bucket that's dedicated to work.

00:01:19.960 | That's going to look a lot different after retirement.

00:01:22.440 | Craft is still important, producing things

00:01:25.160 | of value, skill is still important,

00:01:26.800 | but you'll probably then be pushing

00:01:29.280 | that part of your life towards more

00:01:31.400 | non-professional type craft.

00:01:33.480 | And the other buckets of your life

00:01:35.040 | remain unchanged, just as important

00:01:36.720 | as they ever were before.

00:01:37.560 | Probably most of the stuff you were

00:01:39.020 | doing the day before you retired in those other buckets

00:01:41.440 | you'll be doing the day after.

00:01:43.320 | Your constitution bucket for your health and well-being,

00:01:45.640 | that's still important, obviously.

00:01:47.160 | Community, what you're doing with your friends and family

00:01:49.720 | and those who live around you, going

00:01:51.800 | to be just as important.

00:01:52.800 | It doesn't change when you retire.

00:01:54.520 | Contemplation, thinking through philosophical or theological

00:01:57.320 | issues is just as important before and after.

00:01:59.680 | So I think if you're living with this bucket-based approach

00:02:02.840 | to the deep life, it will be a seamless transition

00:02:05.440 | to retirement.

00:02:06.640 | When you do your normal introspection

00:02:09.840 | on each of those buckets, your craft bucket will change,

00:02:13.400 | the other ones won't, and you keep going,

00:02:16.200 | you keep living deeply.

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00:02:20.520 | (upbeat music)

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How Should I Think About the Deep Life in Retirement?

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