It is kind of a big word, metamorphosis, but it describes what often happens if we are doing retirement right – if we are growing and changing and becoming. There are too many stagnant retirees sitting around. You know the ones. All they want to talk about is their life before they retired. They find a way to mention what they did for a living, how big their company was or how many direct reports they had. I hate to break it to them, but no one cares anymore. We are career “has beens.” It is time for a metamorphosis.

What is retirement metamorphosis?

Metamorphosis is the biological change that happens as something grows. Once you go through metamorphosis you are no longer the same and there is no going back. Every retirement should experience a metamorphosis. We should not be the same person we were when we were working 40+ hours per week. We finally have time to do those things that are deep within us. Things that stir our soul. Things that don’t pay the bills, but make our hearts sing.

I know several retirees that are using this time to evolve. They are building an interesting retirement lifestyle. Let me give you a few real-life examples:

• A retired physician has become an artist and sells his work at the Pacific Artists’ Co-op Art Gallery on the Oregon Coast.
• A retired marketing rep. expanded her interest in gardening to become a master gardener and now runs a small nursery, and on-line store called The Coeur d’Alene Coop – Raising Chickens and Urban Gardening.
• A retired nurse thrifts quality clothing and recreates it into beautiful, one-of-a-kind bags to sell on her Etsy shop.
• A retired radiology technician took some pottery making classes and now teaches it at the local college.
• A retired schoolteacher upcycles furniture and decorative items that he and his wife sell in their vendor booth at a local vintage market.

None of these retirees need the money they bring in from their hobbies. Each started out doing it because they wanted to create. They wanted to express themselves and grow and become. None of them wanted to spend their retirement years sitting around watching T.V. or doomscrolling. They used these bonus years to metamorphosize into a new version of themselves in retirement.

Am I really a writer?

When I retired, I decided I wanted to devote time to creative writing, so I started this blog. But I don’t consider myself a writer. I don’t get paid to do it. I haven’t written a book, and I don’t have any advertising or affiliate marketing on my blog. Matter of fact, it costs money to maintain this blog. (Hum… it would be nice if it would pay for itself.) I write because it is something that I love to do, and I enjoy the interaction with readers and other bloggers. However, I don’t consider myself “a writer.” Or I didn’t. But now I am having second thoughts.

I recently had the pleasure of being asked to provide a guest post on one of my favorite retirement blogs, The Retirement Manifesto. If you do not already read this blog, I would highly recommend it. It is a popular, well written retirement blog that I have read for years. I consider it the gold standard of retirement blogs, so I was honored when Fritz reached out to ask if I would provide a guest post.

Maybe I have metamorphosized into a writer in retirement after all.

Metamorphosizing and money

Still, the question lingers in the back of my mind, do you have to be paid to consider yourself an artist, writer, or gardener? Do you have to paid for your creations to consider it a metamorphosis? Perhaps that line of thinking is a holdover from our careers, or our society in general. We assign value to something if others are willing to use their hard-earned cash to get it. It is the universal stamp of approval.

But just ask any of the creative retirees that I mentioned above, and they will tell you they started their hobby long before they got money for it. It erupted from an inner desire to create. To grow and challenge themselves and to add something of beauty to the world.

One retiree’s metamorphosis led to building an entire little town behind his house. Not because he felt he should, or needed to for any particular reason, but because he was drawn to do it. His creativity was seeking a way to be released. It did not make him any money. Matter of fact, he and his lovely wife spent a lot of money building it and filling it with authentic details. And boy did he ever create an amazing little town. You can read about Bobville here.

In conclusion

In retirement, we don’t need to get paid or sponsored by a company. While the extra money is always nice, we don’t typically need it to buy groceries. We do not need to be paid to consider it a metamorphosis. Anyone can do it.

Your retirement metamorphosis can be starting a new health journey at 65, or committing to a hike out in nature every week, or perfecting the art of making sour dough bread. Maybe your metamorphosis is taking up journaling while you enjoy the quiet moments of reflection that you did not have time for when you were working. It doesn’t matter what it is, and you don’t need to get paid to do it. What matters is that you continue to grow and create and change… even in retirement. Maybe especially then.

I have been trying my hand at watercolor. I am definitely not an artist, but I am enjoying the relaxing process of it. There are plenty of tutorials available, as well as face-to-face classes to learn the technique. I like that there is minimal investment to get started and it is portable. I have made a few watercolor cards for family and friends, but I will never be great at it. The important thing is that I am enjoying it and that it stretches me to learn and grow.

What does your retirement metamorphosis look like? Are you still evolving into the lifestyle you want to be living in these bonus years? Is there something lingering in the back of your brain that you really want to do or try? Not because you should, or because you will get paid for it, but just because it intrigues you. The beauty of it is that we get to decide.

Cheers to the retirement years!