I thought you had retired...

“Oh hey Craig! I thought you had retired….” This was the greeting I received from one of my colleagues the other day when I showed up at work after taking much of the summer off. I laughed it off with the usual “oh I just couldn’t stay away!” but it got me thinking about what I was doing back at ‘work’.

In early 2017 I resigned from my job as an Arborist Representative. It was a good job with one of the best tree care companies in the world. And I was pretty good at it. I made a steady six figures and I didn’t find the work load overly taxing. I visited client’s properties, chatted to them about trees then gave them proposals for care and maintenance. The problem was it just didn’t float my boat anymore. By that I mean it didn’t excite me the way it used to and more often I found myself resenting the intrusion of email, clients and other work related stuff into my evenings and weekends.

I had been thinking for a couple of years about doing something different with my life. I wanted to travel more and was becoming acutely aware of the passage of time (midlife crisis? Maybe). We had been working towards financial independence for a few years and I guess it was money that finally tipped the balance. No, we didn’t hit a net worth that would enable us to stop working and live off the proceeds. But we did achieve a level of wealth that would, with quite conservative estimates on investment returns, grow into enough to support us in our 60’s and beyond without needing to add more to the pile. To me it was an important milestone: We had enough.

My bosses were surprised when I let them know I would be leaving. They asked what I planned to do and I answered honestly: cycle across Canada. After that, no fixed idea but maybe I would think of something while on my own on a bike for 3 months! Well, the hoped for epiphany did not surface on the bike ride and so I found myself in the fall of 2017, sitting at home, twiddling my thumbs and trying to come up with a plan. Actually, I was climbing the walls with boredom and had started looking around for something that would be interesting yet flexible enough to allow me to take off on more adventures. At some point during this search I ended up chatting to my old boss and he asked if I wanted to come back on a temporary/part time basis to help out on a few projects. I was surprised to find that the proposition excited me and within a couple of weeks I was back at work pretty much full time.

Now I can imagine you rolling your eyes right now, thinking I’m a complete sell out who failed in his attempt at a life changing experience! And trust me I have had these thoughts myself. But you know what? I don’t care! I enjoy going to work and the role that I’ve taken on is ideally suited to me. I get to do real arboriculture, assessing trees and writing technical reports but what I enjoy most is the freedom to mentor and train members of staff without having to worry about being a Manager who must tow the company line. I don’t worry about being fired for speaking my mind because I don’t need the money and I could get hired somewhere else even if I did. This hasn’t made me disrespectful, just more honest with myself and the people around me. And you know what? I think I’m a better employee because of it.

As 2017 rolled into 2018 and the days started getting longer, my mind wandered onto thoughts of summer adventures. I let my employers know I wouldn’t be available for a big chunk of the summer, got my projects as up to date as possible then headed off to ‘retirement’ once again. Except this time I knew I would be back with the company come late summer. Not for the money or for loyalty but because I knew it would be something that, after a few months off, I would want to go back to. Something that would give me purpose and make me happy.

Maybe one day I will retire in the traditional sense of the word. But I suspect that when that time comes I will simply replace the ‘job’ with some other project that requires me to get out of bed in the morning and doing something that I feel has a purpose. For without that, what is life really about?

Happy in my work: assessing an old growth Fir.