The Retirement Identity Crisis: How to Build What's Next
A live conversation about who you are when the title is gone. And how to start figuring that out before you need to.
Retirement isn't a finish line. It's an identity earthquake.
You've spent thirty or forty years becoming someone. The role, the calendar, the people who need something from you by Friday — that's not just what you do. That's who you are. Most people don't see how much weight the role was carrying until they put it down. By then, the days feel off and they can't say why.
If you've already started to feel it, this session is for you. Not the financial plan. The harder question underneath it. Who are you when the title is gone? And how do you answer that for yourself, instead of taking the default version most people seem to settle for?
Three things, by the end of the hour.
- 01
A clear read on where your identity is most exposed.
You'll see the specific roles, titles, and relationships you've been leaning on hardest. And which ones won't survive the transition.
- 02
The first draft of who you are when the title goes away.
Not a five-year plan. A sentence you'd actually say out loud to a friend without flinching.
- 03
A way to talk about this with the people closest to you.
Without it feeling like a midlife crisis. With language that takes the topic seriously instead of joking past it.
This is for you if…
You're two to five years out. On paper, the plan is set — your numbers work, you have a successor, and the month-long European vacation is on the horizon. And still: you wake up at 4am thinking about it. You feel anxious about a future you're supposed to be excited about. You've stopped mentioning it at dinner because you can't quite explain what's wrong, and "I should be grateful" is on repeat in your head.
This is probably not for you if…
You're a decade or more out and retirement still feels abstract. This won't land the way it should yet. Or you're at peace with the next chapter: the boat, the golf game, the grandkids, the board seat you actually want. If you already know who you are without the title, there's nothing for you here, and that's a good place to be.
Host Bio
Tarek is a leadership coach for senior executives. He spent more than thirty years leading engineering teams in the transportation sector. He is Maxwell-certified and a licensed facilitator of The Purpose Factor® Assessment. In 2018, an emergency brain surgery made the question impossible to put off any longer: who am I underneath the title? He has been sitting across from senior leaders working that question out ever since — mostly the ones two to five years out from a retirement they're not sure how to be ready for.