Work Optional Lifestyle: 3 Critical Things To Actually Unlock A Fulfilling Life Post-retirement

By Doug Bennett with special guest Guy Remond

Is work optional for you? 

It can be hard to visualise the concept of stepping away from work whenever and for how long you want. For many people, the fear of drifting after retirement without having a clear sense of purpose keeps them tethered to their desks even when work is optional for them.

If this sounds like a valid concern, this blog will share three critical things you need to make the most of your new lifestyle and achieve a purpose-filled retirement. 

This way, even if you’re not there yet, you can forge ahead towards a work optional lifestyle without the fear of ever getting bored.

Expectation vs reality

One person who has figured out how to get the most out of life post-retirement is Guy Remond, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of EHE Ventures.  To open up season 3 of Goals Do Come True, I sat down with Guy to discuss his journey to achieving the work optional lifestyle and his secret to maintaining his purpose in life.

You can listen to our full conversation here.

Guy started off as a manager at Sainsbury’s, built his first business from the ground up, and then sold it, giving him the freedom to choose never to work again. However, today, he owns multiple businesses and has recently launched a new fund to support UK-based AI companies.

I was curious as to why he carried on working even when he could afford not to.

Guy: “Dan Sullivan, Founder of Strategic Coach, once said that retiring is giving your body permission to shut down, and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. People work really hard all their lives and look forward to retirement so they can then breathe. They usually have this vision of sitting on a beach with a pina colada and just having fun. However, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that people who do that actually lose their purpose in life at that point. In many cases, it isn’t exactly what they thought it was going to be.”

There’s nothing more jarring than working tirelessly towards an idyllic future, only to get there and discover that it’s not what you envisioned it to be. Luckily, there are three things you can do to enjoy a purpose-filled, fulfilling life even after stepping away from your work desk.

We’ll start with the most obvious one.

Have a Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP)

Guy: “Every year, I attend the Abundance360 conference, and they have something called a Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP). They ask you to come up with a really ambitious target to fulfil during your lifetime. My personal MTP is to impact the lives of a billion people on the planet through the companies I’m working with. It’s an ambitious target but not an unrealistic one.”

I love the idea of having a massive purpose because, believe it or not, many of us will live well into our hundreds. This means two things. One, you need an ambitious target/purpose to keep you going on days when you don’t feel like rolling out of bed. Secondly, you’ve got more time than you think to hit those targets.

So, whether your MTP is to transform the lives of a billion people like Guy or you have a much smaller figure in mind, it’s important to set your sights on a high-level goal.

Have the balls to seize the opportunities in front of you

One thing most people don’t realise is the sheer amount of opportunities in front of them. I know many people who, even after selling their businesses or retiring with a pension, find themselves earning more than they did in their previous jobs.

The key is to ditch your fear and take the necessary risks to get to where you want to be.

Guy: “You need to have the balls to say, ‘You know what? I’m done with this part of my life, but I’m not done.’ What do you want to do next? What are your goals? What do you want to achieve personally as well as professionally? You’d be amazed at how many companies value your experience and are prepared to pay for that experience. There’s a huge chance you’ll end up earning as much, if not more, than you were before.”

Have the right team of people around you

As much as it can be beneficial to take risks and leap off the edge when you’re no longer chained to your desk, you also need the right people around you. People who will bring you back from the edge of the cliff and prevent you from taking on more than you can handle.

Guy: “You need to build a team for your personal life. I certainly have. I think having the right team around you from a personal point of view is just as important as hiring the right people for your business.

People like me are always going to take risks. We’re always going to push things to the edge, and we have to be careful not to take on or commit financially to too many things. I certainly don’t want to start at square one again. I want to have something for the future. Which is why, as an avid risk-taker, I need people to bring me back from the brink sometimes.”

When you have these critical things in place, it becomes much easier to make the most of the time you’ve got and to live a much more fulfilling life post-retirement.

I’ll leave you with the initial question I asked at the start of this blog: is work truly optional for you?

If your answer is no or you’re not sure how soon work can become optional for you, I’m here to help. Grab a free copy of my guide to Work Optional Lifestyle Financial Planning® here and get started on this new journey.