Designing Your Next Chapter: The Next 8,000 Days
This weekend, my middle son Ethan graduates from high school.
(Wasn’t he a cute graduate in kindergarten…now he looks like a grown-up!)
Like most parents, I’m not entirely sure how we got here so quickly. It feels like just yesterday he was jumping in piles of leaves, playing around with his brother, or fishing, boating, catching insects…generally doing anything outdoors…. now we are shopping for college and planning his move away from home.
As I’ve been reflecting on this milestone, the work of MIT AgeLab and their lead researcher, Dr. Joseph Coughlin came to mind. I love their research so much…here is the entire piece if you are interested in more, but a quick summary of their work is that for many Americans who live into their 80s, life can be divided into four periods of roughly 8,000 days each: learning, growing, maturing, and exploring.
Source: Hartford, MIT AgeLabs
Watching Ethan graduate feels like watching him move from the first 8,000 days into the second—from learning to growing. School, sports, friendships, and discovering who he is are giving way to careers, relationships, responsibility, and building a life of his own.
At the same time, I find myself noticing a different transition. Like many people in midlife, I’m beginning to move from the growing phase into the maturing phase. The years of building a career, raising children, paying mortgages, coaching teams, and managing busy family schedules have a way of sneaking by. One day you’re teaching your child how to tie his shoes…and the next you’re helping him prepare for graduation.
How did he get so much taller than me?
What struck me most about the MIT research wasn’t the first three phases. Most of us understand those chapters because we’ve lived them—or we’re watching our children live them. What fascinated me was the fourth 8,000-day period.
Retirement.
Or perhaps more accurately, life after full-time work.
In a great blog post earlier this month, Dan wrote about the history of retirement, and how unusual modern retirement really is. For most of human history, people worked as long as they physically could. The idea of spending twenty or thirty years in retirement simply wasn’t part of the equation.
Today, however, many people retiring in their mid-60s may have another 8,000 days—or more—ahead of them. That’s not a vacation. That’s an entire life stage.
The Hartford Funds and MIT AgeLab research makes a simple but powerful observation: most people can picture Day One of retirement. Many can picture Year One. Far fewer have a vision for Day 4,567.
Instead, retirement often gets reduced to a handful of images—golf, travel, grandchildren, hobbies, maybe a little volunteer work. All wonderful pursuits. But they aren’t a twenty-year plan.
That’s why I particularly liked Hartford’s framework describing retirement as four separate phases: the Honeymoon Phase, the Big Decision Phase, the Navigating Longevity Phase, and the Solo Journey Phase.
Most retirement planning conversations focus heavily on the honeymoon stage. We talk about the trips we’ll take, the hobbies we’ll pursue, whether we’ll keep working part-time, and how we’ll spend our newfound freedom. Those are important questions.
But eventually the questions change.
Will we stay in our home or move? How will healthcare affect our plans? Who will help if one spouse needs care before the other? What happens if we live much longer than expected? How do we maintain purpose, independence, and meaningful relationships as life inevitably changes?
Those aren’t always easy conversations. They’re also some of the most important.
The fourth phase in particular is often overlooked. We spend decades planning for retirement, but relatively little time planning for the later years of retirement. Yet that’s frequently when thoughtful preparation around housing, family communication, caregiving, legal documents, and financial flexibility becomes most valuable.
Ironically, the research also points to something encouraging. Despite the challenges that can accompany aging, older Americans often report some of the highest levels of emotional well-being. The later chapters can be deeply meaningful ones when approached with intention.
Source: Hartford, MIT AgeLabs
That’s probably the biggest lesson I took away from the 8,000 Days framework. The goal isn’t simply to retire…but rather to thoughtfully design the next chapter.
This weekend we’ll celebrate Ethan as he begins his second 8,000 days. As parents, we’re excited to watch the story unfold.
And maybe that’s the reminder for the rest of us too.
No matter which 8,000-day chapter we’re currently living, the question remains the same: What story are we writing next?
If you’re approaching retirement—or already there—it may be worth thinking beyond the day you stop working and focusing instead on the thousands of days that follow. Those days deserve every bit as much intention and planning as the first three chapters that came before. For more information, Hartford publishes a wonderful workbook resource that give practical tips and information for each phase of retirement…and as always, the folks at Meridian are here to help and would love to hear how we can help clarify the path…so you can enjoy the journey… 😉
Ethan, we love you—go write your next story!
