Life and Purpose

I do readings for people in transition, and one transition is retirement.  I meet people who worked hard all their lives, and have saved enough and have their own homes and come to me and say, why am I drawing the 8 of swords,  what’s going on here, why am I not happy?  And my answer them is that everyone needs a purpose. 

We all need a reason to get out of bed.  If you don’t have a purpose, you start to feel lost and hopeless. Especially goal driven people, who worked so hard to create this retirement, they want to feel respected.   

One woman told me flat out that she would not volunteer, would never ‘work for free’. But she is 72 and can’t find anyone to hire her and does not need the money, so won’t take work she feels beneath her.  She’s unhappily trapped.  Her daughter was so grateful when I said, don’t think of it as working for free - think of it as mentoring.  She had made her money in real estate, and there are many young women, starting out in real estate, who could really benefit from an hour a week with her, talking through their problems, getting her help and advice.  She nodded and said that she could see herself doing that, that felt purposeful, respectful.