What we think and say matters. The word retire has acquired some awful negative baggage. Benefit by tossing it out. Instead, keep living life forwards.

     The images words conjure and expectations they create strongly affect our health, our mind, and the way we behave. 1 The word retire powerfully conveys a negative message of becoming old and useless. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary it means to leave your job and stop working, especially because you have reached a particular age or because you are ill. The legal definition for retirement is that one has left the workforce for good.

     Life flows forward in time, constantly churning and changing like a turbulent river. Flowing forward, one passes through progressive stages of life such as graduating from Grade School to Middle School to High School. Flowing forward continues as we progressively graduate from one stage in life to another. The word retire signals an abrupt stop in this process and fading away into progressive uselessness. Physically and mentally, this is out of touch with the realities of the New Age of Aging we live in. There are major benefits to be gained by personally retiring the word retire. Removing it as a dam blocking the ongoing flow of living.

     I am not talking about eliminating Social Security, Medicare, or other financial benefits available on or before age 65. They can be incredibly beneficial in supporting our adventures in living life forwards. What I am getting at is the need to manage expectations when one transitions from one active stage in life to another. The length of active stages varies greatly. For college it may be four years or more, for an athlete playing at the professional level, it may be one-to-two decades, for a mother raising children it may be two-four decades, and for many in the workforce it may four decades up to age 62 or 65.

     The way one views and manages each transition is critical. This is where the word retire can be destructive. About one-third of Americans eligible to receive Social Security immediately claim it at age 62. 2 The death rate for men in this age group jumps 2% at the same time. 2 Those I have known for whom retirement has been especially difficult had their identity, self-worth and social life tightly imbedded in their job. Reconstructing their personal esteem and social structure after retiring without preplanning was overwhelming. This was the problem Scott, a family friend, faced when his career ended at age 65. He was a very successful business executive, popular with his employees and associates when he retired because of his age. He had no plans, no hobbies or other activities, and was devastated. Saying that his life was over, Scott would sit alone at home watching TV all day. He died within two years.

     Scott’s dilemma is not unusual. Both the Social Security data already mentioned and findings from studies on more than 15,000 retirees show a jump in the death rate with retirement for males in America. 3 Women retiring do not experience the same bump in mortality, possibly due to better planning or social adjustment skills.

Financial Benefits Available in Aging Offer Freedom

     Again, it is the word retire that is problematic. The model of retirement with its strong Stop Signal in life is outdated and needs to be discarded. Many Americans are living longer and the age-associated financial benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and IRAs can provide the financial backing to continue to live life forwards. The freedom gained is in free time to do things that do not fit into a busy workday schedule. To go on to new chapters and stages in living.

     Retirement as practiced in the United States is a Western concept that has become antiquated. Japan for example does not have a word for retirement. Western retirement began as a national insurance program with a set retirement age for workers established in Germany in 1889 by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The German model was widely emulated after that by other Western countries and institutions. The American Social Security System was established in 1935 setting the retirement age at 65. 4 The original American government program was primarily for men, with the mean male lifespan then being 60 years.

     Aging in the United States has changed dramatically since Social Security began. Steady improvements in sanitation, working conditions and medicine have meant more Americans are living longer, healthier lives. According to the Pew Research Center, 10,000 Americans celebrate their 65th birthday every day, steadily building up the population of seniors in the US. This growth will continue through the year 2030. At the same time women are having fewer children, at just about the replacement rate for our population.  The ratio of children to seniors is rapidly becoming 1-to-1.  In 1960, it was three children for every one senior. 

     The bottom line is that seniors, those of us over 65, are becoming a powerful social and economic block of the US population.  We can already witness some of the changes being brought about in this New Age of Aging. More seniors are working past age 65, 10.6 million today and the number is steadily growing. Concurrently, there are fewer young people and thus fewer entering the labor force. The average age of politicians is increasing. For members of the Senate, the average is 62 with Diane Feinstein the oldest Senator at age 89.  Joe Biden at age 78 is the oldest person to be elected President.

       So, many of us are living longer.  Seniors are an increasingly influential component of the social-cultural fabric of America.  We have the opportunity that rather than to fade away with a retired mindset, to use the added years of life for continuing to live life forwards.   It means avoiding the mind-trap Bruce Springsteen sang about in Glory Days.

"And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it

But I probably will

Yeah, just sitting back, trying to recapture

A little of the glory, yeah"

    Living Life Forwards

     Rather than fading away, the added years of life can be used for continuing to live life forwards.   What does this mean? Two quotes provide insights.

         “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards”    Soren Kierkegaar, 1844

          “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”  Steve Jobs, 2005

Each person’s life journey is unique. So, the decisions you make in moving forward in living are up to you. The point I am making is don’t get trapped by words like retire and the negative expectations they can generate.  Instead, look for the opportunities. They can be golden – and make all the difference in your life!

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Questions and Commentary

• Words that have been suggested to replace “retire” when one transitions from one stage in life to the next include: graduate, repurpose, evolve, refire, and rewire. What word or phase do you suggest?

•  What do you think about personally retiring the word retire from your vocabulary?

    Your answers and comments are welcome. Send them to me at dongash@khtnow.com With your permission, they may be added to this article on my Agingsuccessfully.org website.

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     The Author: Don Gash is an emeritus professor of Neuroscience (PhD) in the College of Medicine and Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. His expertise is in drug development for treating diseases of aging, especially those effecting the brain. Fifteen years ago, he recognized that aging posed serious threats to health and wellbeing – and had many features of being a disease. Dr. Gash felt that his experience in developing therapies for neurological diseases could be used to better understand normal aging processes and ways to promote successful aging. Ways that activate natural healing processes in the brain and body to effectively restore true wellbeing. Lifestyle habits and practices that do not replace good medical care when needed but make it work better. The advice given is evidence-based on published studies including his work, and from years of personally testing many programs and exercises to identify those which effectively cultivate and enable Aging Successfully.

     Sources: PubMed identification numbers (PMID) are given for peer- reviewed scientific reports in mainstream science journals. The scientific papers are available online through PubMed on www.nlm.nih.gov.

1. Levy B. (2022) Breaking the Aging Code: How your beliefs about aging determine how long & well you live. Harper, Collins Publishers.

2. Fitzpatrick MD and Moore TJ. (2017) The mortality effects of retirement: Evidence from Social Security eligibility. (Working Paper 24127) National Bureau of Economic Research (available online)

3. Oi K. (2022) Would it kill you to retire? Testing short/long term/recurrent effects of retirement on all-cause mortality risk. Res. Aging 44:619-638. PMID: 35195029

4. Social Security Website: www.ssa.gov/history/age65

5. US Census Bureau