The word retirement has never been one that overly excited me because I never have had plans to “retire”. Over the last 23 years I have watched people retire from the hospital after 27-30 years and ask them “What are your plans tomorrow?” Most of the them did not know, they had no plans, they had no vision, or goals they wanted to work towards after they stop hitting the time clock. The sad part is I have read about several of them in the paper several months and as little as 2 years after retirement that had passed away. Sleeping in every day and doing nothing is just not a goal that I have in mind.(even though I love sleeping in)
At the end of August – it is my turn to go speak with the retirement counselor whom will look at my time accumulated and calculate my time invested to assign a final date that I will stop working for the present company with full benefits. As you noticed I did not say “retire” – my goal is to stop working for the company I work with, scanning a badge across a time clock and asking for days off. My goal is to get up in the morning, sit on my deck and sip some coffee, tea or a morning shake and breathe in the day – then step into my office across from the kitchen to go to work in bare feet and comfortable clothes.
I wish I had the statistics on the age that nurses retire; I have seen very few nurses working at the bedside beyond 60 years of age. Even above age 50, many find the physical nature of hospital nursing too hard on their bodies (and spirits). Some people fail to fully appreciate the implications of the fact that hospital nursing has NEVER been a career in which the majority of its members remained employed full time at the bedside until age 65.
Many nurses give up late night hours, on-call holiday shifts and long hours upon retirement. However, many retired nurses still wish to use their skills in a different capacity. The closer my time came to begin looking in the direction of retirement – my age (46) was nowhere near what the US sees as retiring age. Even staying my full term for 4 more years- 50 years old is a young chick.
Why I Am NOT Going To Stop Working
I have had business growling at me inside for a very long time but continued to push it down. It has always been a dream of mine to be in business – I just did not know what kind. I knew I had to follow someone that had already paved the road and could show me how it was done. When I began working with buiness that dream started unfolding and my life brightened knowing I would be giving up the time clock sooner than I had planned. In the last two years I began blogging about my last 25 years as a nurse – 23 of those in mental health. What I discovered is there are other nurses out there looking to retire as well that want to use their skills. Becoming the author of “The Nurses Voice” sharing stories that most nurses can relate to gave hope to the ones that have read the story.
In the last two years I have gone from staff nurse on night shift working 3 – 13 hour shifts a week to the day shift in the education and training department, teaching the new nurses and employees that come to the facility. In the afternoon when I returned home I worked my business part-time from my smart phone and iPad, usually at my son’s ballgames – becoming one of the top leaders in Young Living adding more new business partners to my team than someone working the business full time. Learning how to work from home has been quite a journey and learning curve. I have listened to training calls in the closet (yes literally), from the front seat of my van and the corner of my office.
Over the last few months I have added a training center to support my Young Living team. Teaching, them how to use their own smart phone, blog and social media to run their business. Using the oils not only gets the attention of retiring nurses but massage therapists. Veterinarians, WAHM’s, school teachers, and more. The opportunity to share my skills and knowledge with them and watch their teams grow is an amazing feeling as a mentor.
Do I plan on retiring? Not at all – I do not want to stop working, I just want to change offices and who I am helping. As much as I have enjoyed patient care and family contact, it is time to change the people that I am helping to a more positive environment. When I get emails, facebook messages and tweets from people who have applied something they heard me teach or watch me use, this is the part of success that makes everything I am learning worth it. I want to spend the other half of my life teaching people to believe they are more than running to a time clock, answering to a boss and they have a dream that was given to them for a purpose. Let me show you how I am changing directions click here
Angela was voted 110th Leading Moms in Business she is also Silver Director for her achievement of being the first in her business to build a solid Silver 2nd level Team Performance and over 30,000 in volume without using the phone. She is setting a model of how to build relationships online, through social media, blogging and email. She was also named #22 in the 2012 Top 50 Blogs Check out her website at www.angelabrook.com
