Expectations and remembrances

We’re down to the last two of these weekly communications. I thought I’d share a final thought about me and my retirement this week and some thoughts about you next week.

I have been asked several times in various ways if I’m looking forward to getting out from under the stress and pressure of the workplace. I hadn’t really thought about retirement in those terms. I have learned over the years to coexist quite well with the vagaries of the investment markets and our performance relative thereto. Most of the pressure to “perform” has been self-imposed, and will continue into retirement. But, as I thought about it, I realized there are two other forms of pressure I’ve felt and that are probably unavoidable aspects of almost any career. And, these I am indeed looking forward to escaping.

The first is the pressure to always know what anyone might expect you to know. Or, more accurately, to appear to know whatever anyone might expect. If you do know, but you can’t communicate it and convey confidence, it can be almost the same as not knowing. And, if you don’t know, but can make a reasonable judgment and are willing to admit your ignorance (to yourself and others), that is often almost as good as knowing. But, either way, this pressure to know is probably the primary “early career” type of work pressure most people have to endure.

Later in a career, a solid foundation of knowledge/experience/judgment has largely been acquired (or you aren’t still in that career), but then another pressure develops. It may even be partially a result of all this knowledge/experience/judgment that has been accumulated (along with an at least equal volume of less useful . . . stuff). But, I’m afraid it’s mostly caused by simple age-related mental deterioration. Either way, it’s no longer pressure to know that dominates, it’s pressure to remember.

So, yes, it will be nice to escape the work-related stress I’ve felt over the years – first the pressure to know, and then pressure to merely remember. Although, I assume there already was a period mid-career when I felt neither. Or, maybe both? I don’t know. Or, at least I can’t remember.

And, at my age, you shouldn’t expect me to.