Missing Purpose
- Tammy Martins
- May 19
- 2 min read
🟢 She hit the nail on the head when she said: “I know I would miss purpose.”
I recently spoke with a colleague who is a few years away from retirement.
Financially, she’s in a good place. She and her husband have had the conversations, built the models, and made the decisions that many people avoid for years. In many ways, she has done everything “right.”
And yet, when I asked her what she would miss most, her answer came quickly.
Purpose.
Not the paycheck.
Not the title.
Not even the routine.
Purpose.
🧭 What most people prepare for… and what they don’t
What struck me in our conversation is how much attention we give to the financial side of retirement, and how little we give to everything else.
She described how freeing it felt once the financial uncertainty started to lift. When you know you’ll be okay, it opens up a different kind of thinking. You can start asking better questions.
Where do we want to live?
How do we want to spend our time?
What actually matters now?
But even with that clarity, something deeper remained unresolved.
She said, “I’ve always had something alongside my work that gave me purpose… volunteering, being on boards, contributing in some way. I know I’ll need that.”
That awareness is powerful.
Because many people don’t realize it until it’s gone.
🌱 The identity we don’t question
Later in our conversation, I asked her how much of her identity was tied to her work.
She paused, thought about it, and said, “Probably 80-something percent.”
Eighty percent.
It’s not surprising when you think about it.
For decades, work shapes how we spend our time, how we introduce ourselves, how we measure progress, and how we feel valued. It becomes one of the primary ways we understand who we are.
And then one day, it’s no longer there.
💡 A shift that changes everything
What I’m beginning to see more clearly through these conversations is this:
Retirement is not only about stepping away from work.
It’s also about redefining where purpose comes from.
For some, that happens naturally.
For many, it doesn’t.
And when it doesn’t, it can show up as restlessness, boredom, or a lingering sense that something is missing, even when everything looks “fine” on paper.
✨ A different way to think about what’s next
What if we didn’t wait until retirement to think about purpose?
What if we started building it now, in small, intentional ways?
Through relationships.
Through contribution.
Through the things that give us energy outside of our roles.
Because the goal isn’t just to leave work behind.
It’s to step into a life that still feels meaningful when you do.
🔗 If this resonates…
This is exactly the space I’m exploring in my work, helping professionals think beyond financial readiness and begin designing a second act that includes purpose, connection, and intention.
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