Why do we retire?
The idea of human life as the stages of childhood, working life, then retirement are deeply ingrained, but let us look at why we retire, why sometimes we can’t and then the question “why retire?”, for those who have the choice to continue or to stop working.
Let’s get some of my privileges out there first. I love my work and don’t have to work that hard in order to maintain a reasonable lifestyle. I also see myself always “working” in the (hopefully) numerous decades to come beyond my current age of 56 because I want to, not because I have to. Unlike me, though, many, many people do work really hard primarily so that they can live, to meet their needs, and often in jobs, they do not like that much (or even like at all).
So, reasons to retire, to stop doing something for work, may encompass any or all of a) don’t like it, b) do too much of it, c) would rather be doing something else entirely that I won’t be paid for. Let us also recognise that the more unequally society becomes, the more people will never be able to afford to retire. A sad indictment on us all and little recognise by many at this point.
So, working too hard, doing work we don’t love, wanting more balance in life, these and other reasons are reasons why we retire (if we can afford to). What reason have I left out though? The one that is so “obvious” and deeply grained that we don’t even think about it because we have got “too old”, because we have reached “retirement age”.
Age, ageing and how we see ourselves and others as we age. I’ve been thinking about the way we cast ourselves and others onto the scrapheap at the age of around 65 (or, increasingly, younger than that in the workplace), starting really several years ago with Chip Conley’s thoughts around the idea of the “Modern Elder”, an example of which I wrote about in “Flip your thinking – how long will you live?“, where he finished a story about the fact that, in his late 50s, he realised he potentially had half of his active adult life ahead of him and noted:
…most sporting matches get more interesting in their last half or quarter and theatre-goers sit on the edge of their seat during the last act of a play when everything finally starts to make sense. Could it be that life gets more interesting, not less, closer to the end? How much of your adult life is still ahead of you and how does that shift your thinking about how you use that time?
Chip Conley
Now, with age we can consider that wisdom can come with age, but what about physical health? Well, I’m reading a fascinating book right now called “The Midlife Cyclist” that delves into the possibilities that can come with actively training at any level (and cycling is a sport that is low impact and focussed on endurance, so very good for those of us of a certain age).
Within this book, a quote from Harvard cell biologist Derick Rossi stood out: “the goal is to increase health span, not life span”. I am not interested in living for many decades to come if it means living a life that is not physically active to a high degree, so let’s look at that a little through the thoughts of the author:
“until very recently, the chances of someone surviving to even 40 years old were vanishingly rare.. for all but a handful of our 300,000 generations of evolution.. a 40-year-odl human is genetically irrelevant”
Phil Cavell, in “The Midlife Cyclist”
So, what about now?
Performance Pioneers
We’re almost certainly the first cohort, in great enough number, to be statistically relevant, to push our bodies into and beyond middle age, towards peak performance. We’re the virtual crash-test dummies for future generations who refuse to succumb to evolutionary stereotyping. How many of our parents were interested in structure training for the sake of pure performance, past the age of 40 or 50? So, nobody really knows for sure what happens if you try to turn your engine to racing performance, at an age when at any other time in history you would have been dead for years if not decades. This is a critical time and we’re the pathway generation for those that follow us
A closing story about what is possible with “healthspan” and so how we can see new choices for ourselves at “Retirement age”
As I started the year, I joined an online virtual “Time Trial” race with the local cycling club, a club that I have felt a little intimidated by and not joined any of their rides last summer after moving to this area. I felt I was not fit enough to keep up (I wasn’t), plus I rationalised that I simply liked riding, not riding at a higher level of fitness. However, where i live is very hilly, so unless I a) lose some kg (gravity is unforgiving) and b) get fitter and stronger, I won’t really enjoy cycling here as I’ll have to keep avoiding the steeper hills.
So, in January at that virtual time trial, I came last and by a long way. I knew some of the riders in person, having at least done some evening “gravel” rides with the club last summer. The majority are older than my 56 years, some well into their 60s. They all rode away from me into the virtual distance with great ease, generating a w/kg “power to weight ratio” often 50% higher than mine.
Now imagine the level of strength and fitness there. The average cyclist there will be in their late 50s (I estimate) and not only be fitter and have a projected “healthspan” of at least two decades more than the average person, they are also most likely measurably fitter and stronger than the majority of people in their 20s and 30s who consider themselves “active”. To check this for yourself, if you are an iPhone user, go into the Healthy app and look at your VO2 max. These cyclists will be at 45 or above at around the age of 60, the average number is in the low 30s.
For accountability as I write this, mine is currently at 39, and I want to get that up to 42 or higher over a period of time. As you can see, rather than these super-fit cyclists having put me off, they have inspired me. Since the start of the year, I have dropped from 102.8kg to 97.5kg (so that is already 12lbs less to carry up the steep hills, allied to which I have started a structured training programme. I am still last every week on the weekly Time Trial races, but I am improving, I am riding my own race and seeing improvements in many areas.