Are you one of the many of us who have identified ourselves through the majority of our lives based on our career or work identity? Then all at once when you retire, that work identity no longer applies and you may seem that you no longer have any worth to yourself or to society. it is at this time you need to learn how to create a leisure identity. This may be difficult for some of us as our work identity has suppressed any personal identity that we may have had. It isn't until retirement and when we give up our work identity that we begin to realze how strong our work identity has been and how much it has suppressed the personal creativeness that we all have.

In our work oreinted society, we have been conditioned to believe that work productivity is equal to self worth. We are afraid to lose this sense of self worth and dignity even if we are working in a boring job. This seems to be more acceptable than learning to enjoy ourselves with more leisure time. People weren't born into careers such as doctors, laborers,etc, but these careers can keep people in bondage and hide their true character. These workers let their careers become their whole identity and mask their true creative inner selves.

To be able to redifine yourself in retirement, you need to learn to challenge yourself on how dependent you are on your work identity. Recall that you spent your first eighteen or twenty yeas without a wortk identity and you can certainly learn to spend the last twenty years of your life without a work identity and learn to develop a leisure identity.

After you have shed yourself of your work identity, you will find that you have time to find the qualities in yourself thart have been hidden by your work identity for years. These qualities are your true self in passionate pursuits, kindness, generosity, creativity, sense of humor and most important peace of mind. Enjoy this most precious ime of freedom that you will ever be given.

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