How to endure last 2 years

[ugeauxgirl]

+1, that’s exactly how I approached it. I had some very satisfying accomplishments over the last few years, on some things I hadn’t made time for earlier, and that made the time pass. I must have goals, and that didn’t change nearer the end. Just working without real goals would drive me nuts. YMMV

This is it, I think. I can't live without a plan. I'm okay with the plan changing, but I have to have one, and all of a sudden after goal completion, I didn't. Thanks for all of your input. I need a goal or a series of them to get me through this. Off to invent one. Or two.

 

[joeea]

I think it was euphoria from achieving my goal and then the inevitable letdown.

I can understand the euphoria completely.
But the letdown is completely evitable - you can stay or leave now - that is entirely within your control.

 

[pacergal]

I, too, needed to work longer for retiree healthcare. In my case, 5 years to hit the magic age. I started by changing job locations, then managed to go to 4 10 hour days with 3 day weekends. At a little over 2 years out (1000 days to be exact!), I started a countdown on my phone. I did my due diligence at work, but also realized that I didn't need to be involved in the BS and politics. That is what helped the day to day. My last year, I used up all of my saved vacation and was actually gone one week every month!
The retiree health care was DEFINITELY worth working those last 5 years. It will go by faster than you think.

 

[mystang52]

If you can't throw yourself into your job, throw yourself into your retirement prep. Research hobbies, travel plans, places to live (if you might move), any plans to make side income, etc. It sounds like you like to be goal oriented, so make those things into goals, and treat work as just something else you do between working toward these goals. If you aren't focused on thinking about work maybe it'll go by faster.

This is a great suggestion. One small additional suggestion. During my countdown, for the first time in my working life I became somewhat of a clock watcher. It was very rare that I would work any time past official closing. If I was about to start a work item that would take longer than 5 PM to finish, I simply waited until the next morning to start.
The culture at this company made this easy to do, not so much at my prior companies; so, this may not be appropriate in your w*rk environment. But if you can, this could help a little bit.

 

[RachaelandtheGoose]

Ugh sorry I didn't mean it to sound that way. DH is 54 and we are FI in large part because of him and I am well aware of that fact. And this site always makes me feel humble. There are so many here who did it better than we have. Sorry if I was whining- this is the ONLY place I can talk about this.

I think it was euphoria from achieving my goal and then the inevitable letdown. I used my goal to distract me from work and I think Midpack's post hit it on the head

I think it's one thing to know intellectually how lucky you are in the grand scheme of things and still find yourself miserable in a daily grind that leaves you restless and itchy. I totally get this. In many ways, once the goal solidifies and becomes real, it can be a bit more torturous to deal with the daily grind than if you're just doing your thing day in and day out with no real goal in mind. At least that's been my experience. Once I could see that light at the end of the tunnel, I became extremely restless. I'm 2 years from that "AHA!" moment and 4 to go. Some days it doesn't seem like 4 years is very much at all. Other days it feels like a lifetime. I've done some of the things suggested here - smaller interim goals, retirement research, lots of smaller vacations, etc. They help, but for me they haven't killed the restlessness. I think I may just have to get used to it and enjoy life as much as I can around the restlessness.

Not much help, am I? Just wanted to commiserate...