He included in that, the freedom to do nothing if he wished to.

While all that sounded pretty appealing, I started to think about what it really involved and that was a mistake, because these 2 goals started to get a lot more complicated.

Retirement does give us the freedom to do what we want to do and to become the person we always wanted to be.

I’ve written previously about the fact that for many of us, our identity has been tied up in our job description.

When we leave full time work, we often have to ask ourselves “ Who am I now?”

Finding an answer isn’t always easy, but retirement does give us the opportunity to redefine ourselves and hopefully to become more like the person we’d like to be.

This freedom to do just what you want to do also has a sting in its tail.

Some people see this as the freedom to sit around and do very little.

This is a recipe for boredom and disaster. How creatively we handle all this leisure time will determine how happy and healthy we will be in this next stage of our lives.

Just as we needed planning in our careers in order to achieve various goals and targets, we also need to do some planning in our retirement if we’re going to make the most of these years.

I’m not just talking about financial planning. Everyone knows that’s important as it gives you the base to build the rest of your retirement on.

I’m talking about planning how you’re going to manage this new unstructured lifestyle that offers you both opportunities and challenges.

The next 10 to 20 years can be some of the most interesting and exciting of your life as you visit new places, learn new skills, grow as a person and realise how fortunate you are.

Or they can be boring.

Your attitude and your preparedness to spend some time planning what you want to achieve during this stage of your life, will largely determine how good or bad it will be.

Oh, and by the way, the popular web site”Starts at 60” ran an article recently asking viewers if they preferred to be called “Seniors” or “Super Adults.” This article generated over 200 responses. Some loved “Super Adults” and some hated it. I think this was OK.

The worst result would have been if people thought that “Super Adult” was so bland that they neither liked or disliked it and didn’t respond at all.

This new term gets noticed. It’s a humorous send- up where older people are prepared to laugh at themselves and push back against those descriptions that stereotype people over 60 as “old” and “past it”.

To be a “Super Adult” says that you have a sense of humour, you are involved with life and still have a useful contribution to make to society.

On our web site you can find information on the four books we have published on a wide range of issues relating to a happy retirement.