Back when I was practicing law, I was so clued out about physical work that I thought that Manual Labour was the President of Mexico. After I became a lawyer, the only work that I did with my hands was typing. For many years I was thoughtful, creative, and strategic. I hired people to do the physical work that I needed done, so that I could devote myself to what I arrogantly thought were more sophisticated pursuits.
Since I retired, things are different. I have just finished disassembling a damaged sun shelter that fell victim to an ice storm at my home in the country. The work consisted of standing on a ladder for quite a few hours and unscrewing things, while (unsuccessfully) trying not to get hurt by falling metal. While I worked, I listened to country music on my phone, which I strategically placed out of the range of the potential metal storm. It was a pleasant afternoon, and when I was done, I could appreciate the tangible results of my work. Soon, I will load the scrap metal into my pick-up truck and take it to the recycling station.
I had lots of time to think while I was working, and one of the things that I thought about was whether I would have preferred to have spent the afternoon drafting a shareholders agreement or working my way through a closing agenda. The answer was no. In fact, it was not even close.
Another pursuit which I now prefer to being stressed out in a law office is travelling. I am just back from spending two months on a cruise, with a few days on either side in Chile and Japan. It was way more fun than attending a partners meeting.
We all know that, “for everything there is a season.” I do not regret that I spent most of my seasons being stressed out in a law firm, although I would certainly have done things differently, had I known better at the time. And I certainly do not regret my retirement season, which consists of manual labour, lots of exercise, and some travel. I have a feeling that the season after the current one might not be so good, but there is not much that I can do about that.
What fascinates me are the choices that we all make about switching from one season to the other. Some chomp at the bit to get to retirement. Others are happy to work forever. That is all fine and good. The issue for me, is whether we make these choices intentionally, having researched the options, or drift into them based on vague notions of what we think retirement will be like. I know that I would never have encouraged a client to make important decisions based on the level of due diligence that I performed about what I would do in retirement. My only regret about retirement is that I did not do it sooner, and I imagine that if I had devoted to it the kind of attention that I gave to my clients, I would have been long gone much earlier.
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.