Using Occam’s Razor to Plan Retirement

According to Wikipedia, Occam’s razor (or Ockham’s razor) is the principle that “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity” (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem). The popular interpretation of this principle is that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

2 years ago I “retired”. After 44 years as an Engineer and Project Manager in the business world, this was a difficult step to take. I had others telling me who to answer to, what to do, when to show up, where to work, how much to spend, etc. Now, I’m on my own.

I worked with an executive coach for almost a year who helped me identify self-inflicted roadblocks to my growth and who thought I would make a wonderful coach. The company made a business decision to shut down our division. So, I spent the last weeks coaching and mentoring my people to help them make the next move in their lives. Many of my people commented, I would make a great coach and mentor. I took all that advice and became a Certified Life Coach.

When I first considered retirement and what I wanted to do next, I sat down and established my priorities. After much writing, editing and minimizing, the following points came to the forefront:

• I will establish my own hours. Just as importantly, I knew the hours would not resemble “9 to 5”.
• I will choose who I would work with and retain the option to turn away those who I don’t want to work with.
• I will seek fair pay for my efforts.

Coaching met these points.

I am spending a lot of time meeting and working with like-minded entrepreneurs. I am also volunteering in my community and my church.

Bottom line, getting up and showing up is proving to be the “simplest explanation”.