When people ask you how old you are, you state your age. E.g., sixty-five. Essentially, you say you have lived through 65 cycles of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Or since you were born on Earth, the Earth has revolved around the Sun 60 times. Or in terms of days, since you were born, the earth has revolved (365 times 60 equate to) 23,725 times. That is how many days and nights a sixty-five-year-old person lives through. Each day and night is a complete cycle, so is the spring-to-spring cycle. So, cycling and revolution should not be a strange idea to us.
However, even though we live through so many cycles, we still think linearly: a straight line, like a highway, a railroad. Our civilizations have invented many devices to defy this cycle, e.g., electricity and light bulbs, which extend daylight throughout the darkness of the night and broaden it, mostly indoors, during the night; we invented air conditioners and furnaces, and we slightly modify indoor temperature during the four seasons. In our pursuit of achievement and professional goals, we envision pursuing them along a straight path; we use a ladder to describe our pursuit: career ladder, climbing higher and higher, the higher the better. When we reach the top of the ladder, what else can we do? We retire from the peak of our achievement, not slowly climbing down the ladder. A big part of our lives, we walk and climb along a straight line; we are not used to a circular path. If a pilot flies along a straight line in the sky, he is flying along a circular path above the earth!! The Earth appears flat, but it is actually a globe. Life moves along a circular path. Life and many phenomena around us move in circles: day and night, the four seasons, etc. Ironically, even though we live through many summer solstices and winter solstices, we still think that our lives are an exception to these phenomena. A straight line needs to bend a bit to fit into a circle. In retirement, the last chapter of our lives, we need to bend many of the habits and strategies that have brought us success and achievement so we can fit into the circular path of our lives.
Life is a journey; it is a circular path. The equipment we brought along for the achievement of the first part of your journey may become useless in the second half of the journey. It may be necessary to discard those burdens to complete the trip. It is hard to discard obsolete lifesaving equipment, but letting go is essential for the success of the second part of the journey.
What to do after retirement? Of course, the first thing is to fulfil the wishes you have no time or money to fulfil while you were working: hobbies, collecting collections, or traveling, etc. After you have fulfilled your wishes, then what else?
Perhaps it is time to fit the straight line into a circular path. Educate ourselves about the circular phenomena of the universe and reconcile the idea that we are part of it.