The phrase conscious retirement refers to making conscious decisions about our transitions from long term careers into whatever comes next. Unfortunately, this phrase sounds like the terminal stage of our working lives. Yet in today’s world, retirement no longer means stopping work entirely. It is not a terminal stage; not the end of working, but rather an opportunity to make conscious choices about how we live during these transitions. It is about living consciously.

In his book, Conscious Living, Conscious Aging: Embrace & Savor Your Next Chapter, Ron Pevny wrote about growing into elderhood. During my recent conversation with Ron, he talked about his work with conscious eldering, working to bring forth and support the elder that wants to emerge in all of us when we get somewhere into our sixties, seventies, or beyond. Conscious eldering requires focus, consciousness, and intention. He said, we need to learn to recognize and honor the call to elderhood, to give it expression, and to do some of the inner work that can enable those elder qualities to emerge. That inner work is part of living consciously.

Here at the 2Young2Retire organization, we are working on a new book introducing conscious living practices for people who believe they are Too Young to Retire®. These practices will be part of the early stages of our journeys into elderhood. The conscious living practices will likely include exploring purposefully, living well, cultivating creativity, working for fun and working for a living, discovering the world and saving the planet, minding relationships, and embracing risk. If you have stories about any of these topics, reach out to me via the contact page.