If not now, when?

Anne Sweeney, a senior executive at the Disney ABC Television Group, announced today that she will retire early next year.  Assuming the picture that looked down over Diane Sawyer's shoulder is a recent one, the executive will be making an early retirement. The newscast announcement quoted Sweeney, "...there has always been a nagging voice in the back of my head pushing me to step out of the comfort zone of the executive ranks and more directly into the creative arena that enticed me to TV in the first place. I finally listened to that voice and thought, ‘if not now, when?’"

What a question!  It landed on my ears the day after one of my favorite clients lost her battle with cancer.  My client retired just about a year ago.  She, too, took an early retirement: she wanted to play golf and spend more time watching her college age kids in dance competitions. She did that for three or four months before shocking diagnosis. 

Sweeney's words, "If not now, when?" seemed to echo over and again in my head as I thought about my client.  I am certain that she would have given anything to have answered that question a few years earlier. 

When?  Interesting question.  People on both sides of my family live into the triple digits, so I both need to work longer to build enough of a nest egg to live on all those years and want to stay engaged.  The idea of being retired almost as long as I've been alive isn't exactly inviting to me.  And, if I get bored, I expect that reentering the work force at 85 or 90 might be challenging.  So I toil on. 

But, I'm sure that my client didn't expect the first year of her retirement to be the last year of her life.  When, indeed?

I am not sure if it has happened with every generation, but I don't feel any different than I did at 30.  I have gotten bored with what I do, but it is rewarding to help people experience more satisfaction in their work, and I am not inspired to do anything else. 

As I write this, a little voice is whispering in my ear: it's not about the work. I am sure it is right.  I've written before about living as if this were my last day, and who knows? Maybe it will be. We never really know. There are dozens of things that don't involve retirement that I want to do.  Maybe it is time to look at that bucket list and figure out what I should be doing now instead of putting off for another year. If not now, when?