Retirement diary of a mother, partner and wife

This ‘page’ is my musings on life in retirement, living the life of my dreams, building good habits and the challenges that I faced as a woman in the business world.

Instalment 1: Landing the career plane

I’m two years and three months into post-PwC life and despite the weird state of the world (Covid, politics) I am enjoying life. There are people and things I miss but now that I’ve crossed the river, I wouldn’t want to go back.

Retirement Diary Instalment One: Landing the Plane

Quotes from my husband, known as the Davinator, will feature in this diary. He has been a close observer of my career over the years. He’s a big Australian former rugby playing bloke – fond of power tools and never met a biscuit or cake he didn’t like. I have been known to overlook his own very successful career and the observation and objectivity that are his fundamental attributes. His words are often better than mine.

The first relevant Davinator quote:

‘I’m not sure about you retiring. You’ve been flying this jumbo jet for 35+ years but you’ve never had to land it. How’s that going to work?’ What a great question.

The retirement decision was made and announced for 1 July 2017. I choose 1 April 2018 as the target date for touchdown – in other words, I planned to go on gardening leave for the final three months. I had nine months to drop the landing gear and study the instructions for landing. I skipped to work with a smile of my face and full of joy for 37 years and now it was time to stop.

I started with practical stuff; creating some boundaries and giving myself some rules.

• I began working from home on Mondays and Fridays. That was easy.
• I stopped ‘stealth working’ on the weekend, that was much harder. I disabled email notifications and the unread email counter on my phone. I told my key contacts that I would not (and did not) read email on the weekends. If there was a genuine emergency, they could call me. Genuine accounting emergencies do not occur in nature, so the phone seldom rang.
• I started reading books, doing needlepoint and watching movies on airplanes. I’ve been a British Airways gold card holder since 1995. Eventually British Airways made me gold for life. I’ve written more emails, revised more presentations and reviewed more training material on planes than I care to remember. It did make me twitch the first time I took a book out of my bag but I pushed through it.
• I enjoyed my last year as a road warrior. I took the opportunity to spend time with and say good bye to all the people who had made my working life so joyful. And I collected what became known as ‘the retirement swag’. So many amazing and memorable gifts from people around the world. Retirement swag will feature in a future blog post on my home office.
• I went on a meeting diet. I didn’t cut out all meetings but I did not attend meetings that were fundamentally about a future that I would not be in.
• I started planning a really fun retirement party. It was epic; and my thanks again to everyone who was there and to Ruth Preedy and Vikki MacDonald for all the planning.

By Christmas, I was able to take two weeks off, relax and enjoy the holidays. Saw more people, hosted a couple of big lunches, did more elaborate themed Christmas stockings. I was successfully creating space in my life and my (many) other interests were expanding to the fill the space available.

My last client visit was in February in Saudi Arabia where I introduced my replacement, Andrea Allocco and said good bye to an epic client and my favourite QRP. I did have a moment, leaving the compound for the last time but it was a high note to leave on.

The landing gear was down and locked and I could see the runway.

The final push was the reorganisation of Embankment Place and the news that all offices would disappear. I have personal space issues and the loss of my knicknacks, photographs, artwork, piles of paper and books was just that last bit of motivation. And March 2018 saw my last ‘working day’ and my final #selfiewithFrancis.

And then I headed south on the sunny side of the street.

Building good habits

Simple habits can have a profound impact on improving your daily life. Here’s a great place to start.

1. 3 item to do list. This is new for me but it seems amazingly powerful. Write a list every morning of three things you want to do that day. Then do them. I keep a journal – I’m adding a section to my daily journal entry for the 3 item list.
2. Exercise. Physical activity is a gift to your mental and physical health. Don’t overthink it – get moving everyday. Get up from behind your desk or off the sofa once an hour. Work in the yard. Ride your bike. Park as far away from the store entrance as the parking lot allows. Exercise snacking!
3. Turn off the TV. 2 years ago we cancelled our satellite TV. January 2020 we gave up our TV license. Best thing we ever did. We use a streaming service but do it mindfully, in the evening, together. And not every evening. It frees up time for so many other and better things.
4. Practice gratitude. I started keeping a journal again 18 months ago. Every morning – 3 things I’m grateful for and 1 good thing that happened the day before. Helps me keep track of my habit building. More on that in a new entry.
5. Write something every day. I have a routine of a regular post on my health group app and a regular post on social media. Writing helps you think about the world in a more observant way.
6. Reset your kitchen. Clean your kitchen every night before you go to bed. Usually this is my husband’s job but lately I’ve been helping too. Mentally and physically – leaving yesterday in the past.
7. Eat together. We do. We’ve made and kept this habit in lockdown also. We don’t always focus on each other but at least one or two meals a day where we are at the table with no distractions.