Partimewannabe
Confused about dryer sheets
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2013
- Messages
- 9
JacksonD I want to read your blog!! I am a younger doc who wants to follow your footsteps, what is the link?
You are obviously doing very well. How many years did you practice post residency and any fellowships?I am now 18 months into retirement and haven't missed patient care at all. Everyone writes that you shouldn't just retire but should retire to something. I didn't have any real plan with how I was going to spend my time but just decided that if I couldn't figure out something to do other than work then I was pathetic. I retired from seeing patients all the time to...not seeing patients. That was basically it. I was able to cut back practice a bit before I retired and that gave me confidence that I could do it. For the first few months after retiring my wife would ask me what I was going to do that day, my response was always "whatever I want to". She figured I said that because I didn't know what I wanted to do and some days she was correct. I was very happy just being able to wake up every day with a smile on my face and let the day unfold after years of having my time dominated by work.
After a period of unwinding, my goal oriented personality is coming back to the forefront but with new goals and activities of my own choosing. I am working with some med students to organize a local eyeglass recycling program. I have also been in contact with the university department of financial planning to help devise an educational program on personal finance for med students, residents, and other young doctors. One thing just leads to another as I am now able to be open to new ideas and adventures while leveraging the knowledge and connections I built up in my years as a doctor.
There are still plenty of days where I am not busy, but boredom is fleeting and I don't want to get overextended. Golf, triathlons, and travel still consume a fair amount of my time.
Early retirement has been a time of retaking control of my life and I am still fired up to see what kind of life I can create. I have absolutely no regrets for retiring early and on my own terms.
You are obviously doing very well. How many years did you practice post residency and any fellowships?
He would certainly deserve any recognition he might get.I wonder if a proctologist gets the Fellowship of the Ring?
Dear Jackson D
Thanks for your frank and honest reply. I don't have any medical colleagues of the same age who've retired yet and the earlier generation of doctors believed strongly in dying in the saddle. I couldn't agree more with the sentiment that if one was not imaginative enough to think of sometimes else to do, it would be truly pathetic. Learning a foreign language, keeping fit, travel and management of my portfolio are things that I know will occupy me. But, as you know, we docs have been always brainwashed to believe that our work should always come before anything else. Like "rkser" said, it's not easy to cut the chords to medicine completely....
I hope she's a medical professional and not some strange tourist with a sick idea of the perfect travel destination...My aunt, who is only a couple of years older tham me, flies to a medically underserved area for 2-4 days at a time a few times per month and seems hapoy with that.