10 Myths I believed that kept me trapped working one more year. Why retire now?

• Reflecting on misconceptions about retirement.
• Ten lies people believe about their job.
• Insights from 6 years of retirement.
• Tough love for those contemplating retirement.
• Understanding the reality of life after work.

So last week I was talking with a friend of a friend. So I was with a personal friend of mine. One of their friends came up and we started talking about retirement.

And I'm going to share some of the contents of that discussion. I'm going to call it 10 lies that people that say I love my Job Believe. Okay, long title. But this was where this discussion went and I thought it may be valuable.

Maybe you're saying one or two or even ten of these things to yourself, but me looking back on my career, how I loved my job and now six years being retired, these are kind of coming true in some of the beliefs I had when I was still working.

I thought you would like it. So retirement lies that maybe some people believe—little tough love today. So I'm going to be a little blunt. Not trying to offend, but trying to help people see reality as I see it on my journey.

Okay, may not be right, but I'm currently 60 years old. Been in this retirement process for six full years now and reflecting on it today. So let's get going.

Enough of the introduction. Number one, the easy and lazy thing to do is to keep working. You got to be bold and you got to do your homework to retire.

So the easy thing to do is just keep working one more year. And a lot of people talk themselves into working one more year for financial reasons, but a lot of times it's just because you're scared. Okay? Because it is a new journey you're starting on.

Number two, my dad lived till he was 95. I'm going to be the health span exception. Hey, if I work till I'm 65 or 70, that's fine. I got 25 years of healthy retirement. You're going to be the exception.

Well, good luck with that. Hope it's true. I really, truly hope it's true. But the odds aren't with you. Starting about 70, 75, a lot of people slow down dramatically.

So you're consuming some of your healthiest years working. Number three, I'm irreplaceable at work. They're going to be fine without you.

You're not going to receive any phone calls, you're not going to receive any emails in desperation for you to come in and bring your 25, 30, 40 years of experience home. The new regime that takes over are glad to take over and they're not going to suffer because you left.

The cemetery is full of irreplaceable people. I like to say that. Picked that up somewhere.

Number four, this is kind of related to number three, nobody at work really cares about you retiring. Five minutes after it's announced, they'll say, oh man, congratulations. Excited for you. What are we going to do without you?

Five minutes later, everybody's jockeying for position. And what's going to be the new normal? Can somebody take your role? Somebody take your responsibility?

Will somebody get promoted because of it? And you know, when I announced my retirement, everybody was delighted for me. Great people, great colleagues.

But once it was announced, it was different. The next day coming into work, it was when I gave my two weeks' notice. That turned into a month. But I was treated completely different after I announced it.

Number five, nobody cares about you completing the project you're on before you retire. I hear this a lot. People have a project that they started; it's a two-year project, a four-year project, and they, you know, it ends in six months or it ends in a year and a half.

If you complete that project, great. But don't hold on to your retirement. Don't work another six months a year because of that obligation.

I promise you, the company, if they could figure out a way to do that project without you at a lower cost, they would make that decision in five minutes and you'd be on your way. Okay?

So there are times in your career where you need to be a little selfish. What's best for me? And working another six months, working another year of your life, working another 18 months to complete a project, to me, you'll be looking back at that six years later and say, why did I do that?

Why did I do that? So don't fool yourself. Don't say I committed to get this project done. If it's the right time for you to retire, retire; somebody will gladly pick that up and bring it across the goal line.

Number six, nobody cares. I was in this mood about nobody cares. Nobody cares about you achieving the milestone of 30 years or 40 years.

Hey, I've got 38 years. I just want to get to 40. It's a nice round number that makes no sense at all. You're going to look back on that and say what? That makes no sense.

Six years after being retired, my career means less and less and less. Working another year or two years to hit a round number makes no sense at all. When the math works for you, that's when it's time to retire.

Don't try to hit a goalpost that you manufacture of 30 years.

Number seven, I loved my job and was good at it. But six years after retirement, my career doesn't mean that much.

It doesn't mean that much sitting here. I'm in a condo in Florida. I, you know, every year my career means less and less. I was glad I had my career. I loved my job.

But I got so many more interests in hobbies and time on relationships and time doing what I want on my schedule means everything to me. The career? I bet by 10 years, I may not remember what my career was.

Uh, so be careful saying, I love my job. Just be careful with that. I think after you, if you're like me, after you retire, it's going to mean less and less and less.

And I bet there's a lot of folks out there just like me. Leave a comment if that's you. Leave a comment if you loved your job. But it's getting less and less and less important as the years go by in retirement.

Number eight. This again is tough love. You don't have friends at work. You have colleagues.

How many of them will take the time to set up a phone call, to set up a lunch date, to set up a get together, you know, to grab a beer after you've retired, a year after you retired, two years after you retired, three years after you retired?

The vast majority of them will not. The vast majority. It could be 100% for me. I have a group of retirees that I get together with people that are, you know, not working, that have turned into friends.

But I got one person that's at the company I worked with that I would consider a friend. I have a lot of colleagues that call me and talk to me about different things, especially retirement.

But don't confuse colleagues with friends.

Number nine. I loved my job. I said that. I think I would still say it today, but in reality, it's all I knew.

I worked for one company starting at age 22, had 14 different jobs with. As I bounced around to different responsibilities, different leadership roles especially. I was good at it and it paid well. And I liked the people too, okay?

But the world has a lot to offer. Did I just happen to pick the one thing of all the options in the world, all the things where I can spend my time, whether it's travel, whether it's exercise, whether it's nutrition, you know, being an umpire for children's softball teams, whatever, you know, being a wine taster?

All the things that life can bring, I happen to pick the one thing that I love, and that's why I'm going to keep working. There may be... I'm being sarcastic. As you can tell, there are other journeys.

Maybe it's travel, maybe it's exercise, maybe it's starting a YouTube channel, maybe it's being a financial coach. There's all these other journeys that you can go on.

It's a little naive to think I found the one thing that I'll be happiest at. I found the one thing; why not start a new journey?

That's how I look at life, being 60. I want to sample more journeys. You know, I started this channel off talking about reliability and maintenance. It's a passion of mine.

I still write for a magazine and make videos for a magazine on reliability and maintenance. I wrote a book on reliability and maintenance. It's just another journey that I wanted to spend time on.

I'm spending very little time on that—maybe a couple hours a month. And then I switched to retirement. It's been a couple hours a week on making these videos and responding to comments.

But the world has so much to offer. Be careful saying, I love my job. It's the only thing I can love if I had all the options in front of me.

And that's how I see things now, retired. Six years is I like the menu of other things to do.

Number 10 and last one. You have stress in your life. You have an alarm clock in the morning, you have meetings, you have deadlines, expectations, performance reviews.

This was one of the biggest misses in my retirement. If you would have asked me a month before I retired if I had a stressful job, I would have laughed at you.

I would have said no. I love my job. I like the excitement, I like the drama. I like, you know, doing things that people said weren't possible, doing difficult tasks, up to the challenge. I love it.

But stress is a big deal. And the day I retired, it was like I put down a 15-pound weight that I was carrying around with me that I did not even know I had.

Okay. And I hear this a lot. Let me know in the comments if this was you after you retired that you didn't realize the stress from environmental problems, safety problems, performance problems of your groups getting results.

Stress caused me to eat poorly. I always exercised pretty good. I always prioritized that. But extra eating was a problem. I'm down 35, pushing 40 pounds down since I've retired.

Causes high blood pressure and heart disease. There are people linking it to cancer. It's kind of one of those root of all evil problems, stress.

And if you're working, you've got it, and you don't even know it. Funny. Many people continue to work because they want health insurance.

So they continue to work at a job that causes them stress that's killing them so they can buy insurance for healthcare. That's just, I find that a little humorous.

But there are healthcare options. I've got a linked video down below with my top, like 12 videos in there. Healthcare is one of them. There are many options out there.

So this was the tough love conversation that I had with an individual last week. And really it was, I was talking to myself eight years ago, seven years ago, six years ago. This was my story six years ago, seven years ago.

Okay, so these are things I've learned. So it's not really me lecturing somebody else. It's me reflecting on my previous self.