Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years

Book excerpt: Have you retired or are about to and have no clue what to do next? Don't succumb to isolation and depression as so many have. This book offers a detailed guide for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors to reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives by finding joy, excitement, and purpose in their retirement. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach but instead highlights how each individual can identify and locate gratifying activities and pursuits based on their own interests and comfort level. The author learned the secret the hard way and finally transitioned from retired probation officer to actress, author, public speaker, and blogger. Audience members at her lectures on senior reinvention began requesting a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks as well as six years of posts from her free, online blog. Her lectures, blog, and this book are all titled, "Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years." The book details the author's own personal reinvention after she retired; why people fear retirement; why they eventually do retire; how you can find joy, excitement, and purpose in your retirement; how you can figure out what might be of interest to you personally; and what the secret is to customizing available choices to your particular personality. To help guide them, the reader is then given a long, detailed account of what is available to retirees in the community as well as where and how to find those activities and pursuits. There is a separate chapter on volunteer activities and another on employment opportunities for retirees and seniors. The final chapter offers six years of posts from the author's blog which she has been writing every two weeks since 2013 where she discusses her thoughts, observations, and experiences which she believes are universal to the retiree and senior populations. Her website is: LeeGaleGruen.com