If you’ve spent most of your life in medicine, chances are you’ve always had a plan.

Undergrad. Medical school. Residency. Fellowship. Practice. Each step built on the one before it, with clear goals and a system with clear guidelines and expectations. Even when things felt uncertain, the structure helped you find your footing.

Thinking about retirement? How's that feeling? I'm guessing it feels a little… off? That makes total sense.

Retirement isn’t a solo endeavor,  it's a team sport. For all the talk of independence and freedom, the truth is the quality of your retirement has everything to do with the people you share it with. Think of it like a team sport where each player contributes to the whole, and the experience is more gratifying when you share both the challenge and the reward with each other.

I’ve spent much of my career helping others navigate life transitions. I’ve seen executives redefining their path, individuals facing all varieties of uncertainty, and organizations managing change. But it wasn’t until I began approaching my own transition into retirement that I fully understood the weight of this question:

What happens to our identity when we step away from the work that has defined us for decades?

For physicians, that question can be especially complicated.

As you approach retirement, are you inclined to look for an advisor? A coach? Are you a “just give me the plan” type of person?

At Retire Artfully, we pride ourselves on guiding clients through the practice of retirement. Now, this might seem like “semantics” but bear with me as I explain why the language matters and how it can help define what we offer as you transition to this new and exciting phase.

One of the most powerful questions I've used in an executive coaching session is “Does your calendar reflect what you value?” It’s true. Our time is often a reflection of our priorities, our habits, and sometimes… our autopilot. Retirement gives you a rare opportunity to take back your calendar—and make it mean something.