Never Retire: I'm Not Working To Retire, I'm Working To Live

Because chasing "ambitious" end goals is a good way to miss your life

On Monday morning, walking to the panadería, I had a thought:

I have no end goal for my work.

I’m not working toward retirement. I’m not trying to get rich.

Sure, a windfall—like a viral Medium article—would be nice. But the stuff I do most days isn’t in service of some big payoff or end point.

And I guess that really brings us back to the beginning and the original point of the Never Retire newsletter. Why grind toward a traditional retirement there’s a good chance you won’t be able to realize anyway? Because even if you did somehow save enough to quit work altogether, then what? How would you keep yourself engaged? Golf and the grandkids work for some people some of the time—but not most people most of the time.

I’m working to live the life my wife and I want to live now and for the duration. If I’m lucky enough to do that for the next 50 years—and we can buy a place here in the next few—I’ll be more than happy. I’m also working to narrow my work down to the work I really want to do. That is the writing I do in my newsletters—Never Retire and Friki de Bici—and on Medium. Scaling back as I get older—I turn 50 next month—would mean only working for myself. No clients other than the one I see in the mirror every morning.

When you take this approach, you’re still working to achieve things—maintain a comfortable quality of life, buy an apartment, travel a bit, whatever—but you’re not working to stop working. Which is where people who think too traditionally about work and retirement miss the point and get themselves in trouble. You can create a lot of anxiety for yourself by striving for things that history and the current spirit and reality of the times have proven improbable, if not impossible.

That thought on the walk to buy bread triggered a little anxiety. But then I reframed it. Not having an end goal that defines the end is a good thing. Because too many people stop doing too many things as they approach the age when they plan to retire. It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap. And a good way to not keep yourself young.

Working less now so you can work less longer makes more sense than putting a date on the calendar when you plan to stop working. Granted, if you have a full-time gig that you don’t want to do forever and you have changed your perspective on retirement, you’ll need to find ways to transition now or later. That, too, can be exciting. Because that transition is also a process.

Which ties it all together. When I was walking and thinking what’s the point if there are no hard end goals—be it something objective, but lofty like retirement or more head-in-the-clouds like I want to be rich (or just wealthy)—I remembered that some things people say over and over again get repeated because they mean something.

Enjoy the process. Live in the moment. And there doesn’t have to be some hugely ambitious goal to achieve at the end of the road. But that’s where I stopped myself—at that last sentence. At that last thought.

It’s such an American thing—to need permission to slow down. To act like it’s noble to kill yourself for work, but somehow lazy to live differently.

But if you grew up under that toxic culture of work ethic, maybe the most ambitious thing you can do is walk away from it. Not in retreat, but in personal rebellion.

Because sometimes, sitting on a terrace for two hours does more for your mind, body, and soul than eight hours behind a screen ever could.

Here’s a link to my latest YouTube Short for Friki de Bici.

Sometimes I cringe when I watch my videos. I know I have a long way to go. But also, I am myself in these videos. I like to go out and ride around on my bike and stop for a beer (though I don’t usually chug a 1.50€ Amstel on my rides). Before I started doing YouTube videos I would talk to myself on these rides. Now I am simply recording something I have been doing—on and off—for the better part of 25 years.