Retirement.  It’s such a cool-sounding word.

It ranks up there with the phrases, “All-inclusive resort” and “Winning the lotto.”

I don’t know if I’ll ever be a retiree.  Of course, the definition is ever-changing.  It used to be that you worked at one place for 30 or 40 years, they threw a party for you, gave you a watch and then you went fishing or golfing a lot.

Today, I look around at retired people that I know and they seem just as busy as when they were working.  So, if you really enjoy the work you do, why would you quit doing what you love to pick it up again?  It makes no sense.

Now, to be clear, I don’t plan to keep getting up at 4am every morning as I have for the past 10 years.  However, do remember, my 4am get-ups were a promotion from my radio days, when the alarm clock was set every morning at 2:17am.  I can’t imagine doing that again.

I believe my “retirement” will be sort of a hybrid, a modified version of the old classic, where I get up every morning and just do the things I want to do.  Staying busy keeps the mind alert.  I very much enjoy keeping my mind going at full speed.  But retirement will mean clearing out all the clutter, the things I’m doing now because they’re part of the job, but that I’d love to remove from my existence.

A day in my retirement will include a 7am or so wake up (because I do actually enjoy the morning hours), heading down to the computer to check in with the world and do some writing.  Then, heading off to a project that I want to do–a video, a movie, a script, produce a podcast, shoot a commercial, etc.  There’s a very profitable collection of things I can do. I just need to figure out the way to be able to focus on them.

And then, one day, you’ll hear that I retired.  That I’m foregoing the 40+ hour work week job to be based out of my home and to have a dozen or so projects in the air, collaborating with friends and turning all those ideas I’ve had in my head for years into reality.

Yep, that’s my dream. That’s my goal and if you follow this blog long enough, you’ll be among the first to know when that happens.

Tim Hunter