During the Spring of 2018, I was asked to speak at a Professional Women’s Networking Group about my 30-year career in the Cosmetics and Fragrance Industry, as well as about the events leading up to my retirement in February, 2018.
I didn’t want to get up in front of a large group and speak only about my life and my career. I did want to make a positive impact on the audience, with the hope that they would take away some interesting and helpful insights. While it was MY workplace to retirement journey, the objective was to make it relevant for THEM.
When I was in the midst of my career and while I was working towards climbing the ladders of achievement, I wasn’t thinking about how my life and my career would impact my next chapter. However, as I got closer to my planned exit, I started to seriously think about those past 30 years. I realized that what I had done in the past would be a great way to get clarity as to what I would be doing once I retired.
Looking Back at Life Skills:
- At the beginning of my career, I was offered a job opportunity that required a 4-hour commute several days a week. However, I leaped at the chance to work for a global beauty company that enabled me to reach my career goals. It was not easy, but I stuck it out. Hard work, determination, and grit really helped me during my career; and as I have discovered over the past 4 years, these traits have also helped me achieve my retirement goals. Sometimes, you need to tough it out in order to get what you want. For me, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
- While I was working in the Multi-Cultural Beauty Division of L’Oreal USA, I led the team that launched a new systems and analytics software process. We received an award for Team Leadership, which was a tremendous accomplishment. I learned the importance of leading, and working together with a group, which became an integral part of what I am now doing in my next chapter of retirement.
Looking Back at Learned Skills:
- I always enjoyed writing and delivering my own company presentations, and I instinctively knew that these skills would be transferable and helpful to me as I was deciding what to do in my next chapter. And, as it turned out, they have benefitted me tremendously as I move forward in my new entrepreneurial, retirement venture.
- My area of expertise at work was in budgeting, finance and analytics. I always enjoyed working with numbers and I knew that these skills would be very helpful in retirement, both in my personal work, as well as in my entrepreneurial venture. However, as it turned out, I was able to further expand my work in retirement by part-time teaching Math.
What I could have done better:
- Working in a very structured and procedure-driven environment can sometimes make you lose perspective as well as patience; and this was a character trait that I was not able to manage as well as I would have liked, during my career. Now, in retirement, as I work part-time, and develop my own business, I am becoming more understanding, and more patient with other people.
As we move forward and transition from our careers into retirement, we can be proud of our accomplishments. We can also do some introspection and strive to improve as we start to navigate our retirement journey.
(Thank you to “Stocksnap” for Pixabay for the photo.)