9 Retirement and Reinvention 237
“mattering” represents the centerpiece for adults navigating this third quarter
of life. For the retiree, the need to be noticed, sought after, depended upon, and
appreciated (Schlossberg, 2009) makes a difference in the ability to cope with
the transition to retirement and the development of a new identity.
During this phase, the adult is continuing the midlife task of grappling
with mortality and realizing that time is more limited and that there is not much
time left to do what one wants to do. The transition to this phase is marked by
the importance of setting priorities and deciding what is most important in the
“third quarter” of one’s life. Finding new sense of purpose and activities that
one enjoys help to ease the way into this retirement/reinvention phase of life.
Although transition and change generally breed uncertainty, retirement
is unsettling because change happens on many fronts. Trafford (2004) writes
of the “low-grade drumbeat of anxiety spreading across the land... of rest-
lessness that affects people of a certain age” (p. 4). This is a social symptom
of longevity and of the transitions of retirement. One has to confront the fact
that in retirement, one may have to gear up instead of winding down as one
works toward reinvention in retirement. Because options are not clear, adults
in this phase of life do not know what to expect and may tend “to play it
safe” because they do not know if the workplace will provide opportunities
for them (Life Planning Network [LPN], 2013).
Corbett writes of a “revolt against the prospect of coasting through retire-
ment” (2007, p. 6) and a need to “prune one’s portfolio,” by which he means
focusing on the activities that feel they add purpose and meaning to life and
pruning away the dead wood of activities that are not fulfilling. He believes
that adults are electing to maintain some work during this phase because of
a sociocultural change: While retirement was once characterized by elders
enjoying memories, now later adulthood has become a time of new begin-
nings. Ironically, the historical norm in American agrarian society had workers
remain active as long as they could, though not happily. Now, for many, being
active and happy in retirement is possible. In short, successful transition to
retirement involves having economic sufficiency and identifying the activities
and vocations that continue to give life purpose and joy.
Bratter and Dennis (2008) identified a shift in retired career women “from
believing that external circumstances must somehow define how productive
or useful we are—to defining that value for themselves” (p. 31). They conclude
that the term “renew-ment” rather than retirement better describes this phase
of life when women can live in ways of their choosing. This stage in life has
become an adventure for many adults, rather than an ending or an experience
to be feared.
Retirement: Diverse Pathways/Models/Meanings
Sargent et al. (2013) suggest that there are at least two contrasting kinds of
reinvention of retirement. The first model refers to a clearly defined time at the
end of the work life that may include activities not common before, but that
accepts retirement as a stage of life. The second model differs in that it rejects
the notion of retirement as a distinct phase. In the first model, adults choose to
experience reinvention with the idea of a sustained distinctive experience. In
