I think I’ve said recently that I sometimes wonder why I keep reading the Guardian and Observer other than out of a sense of loyalty. I’ve often felt it’s a paper aimed at a younger demographic than I. But this last weekend I had cause to revise my opinion, for this week at least. Typically I just skim through the articles without bothering to read them but this week there were quite a few profiles and such like that were of interest.
The first was of fashion designer, Paul Smith. He was celebrating 50 years in the fashion business and talking about how it all started for him. Well with our help actually, although we don’t get a mention. But we were there when he opened his first small shop in Nottingham called The Birdcage. We saved our hard-earned art college, grant money and spent it on fashion items. We thought we were the bees knees. That was the first interesting person.
Followed by Arsene Wenger. I am not, and have never been, an Arsenal fan but you can’t help but admire a man who changed the image of the typical football manager of that era and ever since. I.e. he was intelligent. He was not the usual ex-player with very little to say other than, he’s a good lad, Brian, lovely left foot, he has.
Then there was Sue Perkins. I like her because she fits into my all-rounder, Renaissance woman mold that I wrote about in my retirement blog about heroes and Leonardo. So enjoyed that article. Quickly followed by a profile of John Lydon of the Sex Pistols. An interesting man although again I have to say I was never a punk fan. It seems he’s living in California and looking after his wife of many years (forgotten the exact number) who has dementia. Hats off there.
John Cooper Clark profile next. Again an interesting man and again somebody whose ‘speciality’ is of no interest to me, poetry that is, but he’s led an interesting life. And, as with all of them, he’s getting on a bit. Finally there was a review of the third of Rupert Everett’s biographies. I’ve read the other two and he writes very well and again has had an interesting life. Finally two more book reviews, Graham Norton and Stephen Fry.
So only one woman but, sort of, 3 gay men. Never let it be said I don’t have varied interests. Not in being gay but in gay men who lead interesting lives and particularly those that write books. But all this is by way of introduction to the main theme of this retirement blog.
Which of these people would you guess said this – without a form of philosophy you cannot work at the highest level. You are the guide and the guide first of all needs to know where he wants to go / a clear idea of what he wants. He also talks about the importance of having an identity and values that are clear if you want to be successful.
And your point is, I hear you say. Well, just this, I believe it is important if you want your retirement to be ‘a success’, to have a clear philosophy about the kind of retirement you want yours to be. I’ve written in the past about having retirement values. Often these are values that underpinned your life when you were working, you carry the value forward and revamp it for a different life scenario.
These values formed (and now form) the basis for your everyday behaviour and inform the decisions you need to take. Retirement can be a confusing and shapeless existence and while some people like this form of freedom, some of us do not. If you enjoy a structure-less existence then good luck to you. For those of us who find retirement a tad confusing then I recommend imposing the structure that can come from having a clear retirement philosophy, values, identity. Just putting it out there.
So if what I’ve written above seems to make sense then take a little time to answer the questions – what is / will be my philosophy of retirement? What are the values I want to underpin my retirement and how would I describe my identity as a retired person?
The person who sparked in me the idea of the importance of having a philosophy was Arsene Wenger. You probably guessed it but it surprised me a bit that he was talking in those terms but it makes sense in a football context and I suggest in a retirement one. That’s all.