By Alexis Sam
If you have given the best years of your life to your career as a first responder, you are to be congratulated, of course, and as you approach retirement, you need to consider your new life. After the emotional farewell party organized by your colleagues, you need to plan a different routine and find a new passion in life, which could be anything that interests you.
Here are a few tips to help with the transition from working first responder to a happy retirement.
- Find a Passion in Life – Obviously, your career was a major aspect of your life, the thing that drove you all those years to stay in shape and perform your duties to the best of your ability. Check out the valuable information on https://firstresponderretirement.com/, an organization dedicated to retiring first responders. Fishing, golf or even wood carving are just a few of the pursuits that you could take up now that you have so much free time and this will give you that much-needed reason to keep going.
Talk to Like-Minded People – Of course, you are not the only first responder facing retirement and with a Google search, you can find the website of an organization dedicated to connecting first responder retirees from all parts of the world.
Keep in Touch with Former Colleagues – While you might not be working together, your old friends and colleagues would want to keep in touch and when they organize social events, you should attend. Keeping ties will help with the transition and don’t make the mistake of thinking retirement means cutting all ties with your colleagues, as this will only lead to feelings of anxiety.
Stay Busy – While it is nice to sit back and relax, you shouldn’t have too much free time on your hands, as this might lead to brooding and generally speaking, too much inactivity is not a positive aspect of retired life. You will no doubt have kids with kids of their own, so do make visiting relatives a part of your weekly schedule, with perhaps weekly excursions.
Physical Fitness – This is something you have taken for granted, as the job of first responder demands a level of physical fitness, but as we age, we tend to become less active and retirement should never mean compromising on physical fitness.
Retirement is something we all have to come to terms with, and for the first responder, there are risks of feeling inadequate and replacing that rush that came with emergency response is something you need to give some thought.
