Author, Cynthia Ross Tustin
Published January 29, 2021
Updated June 1, 2023

I originally created this post about quitting sugar back in January 2021, when I was “thinking of retiring” and feeling pretty overwhelmed and knew others were too. My goal was to create a small community to support each other. Well, it totally worked!

All of you have thoroughly embraced this blog and its newsletter. So I thought it might be time for a bit of a refresh and let you know that can retire from a job you love to a retirement that you love just as much…maybe even more!

The Original Post

Is Retiring Like Quitting Sugar?

You know you’re supposed to “take stock” of things before you retire, right? All the books say so. You’re supposed to do an inventory to ensure that you have everything you need so you can retire comfortably. 

But perhaps, like me, you’re wondering what you might be giving up, rather than looking at what you need. It made me wonder if retiring is like quitting sugar.

What Are You Actually Giving Up If You Retire?

You know you want to quit sugar. You know you should quit sugar. But it’s addictive and it’s become hardwired into our DNA. It’s tough to walk away from.

Many of us, “of a certain vintage” have changed careers during our working lives. Artists become designers. Bankers become real estate brokers. And ICU/Trauma nurses become fire chiefs. Yes, that last one is mine. Looking back, that career change felt less daunting than the decision from career to retirement. No doubt retirement feels like a bigger hurdle for many people.

I often wonder if job-loving workaholics aren’t just like sugar addicts. If that statement is true, then retiring for people like you and me isn’t about taking stock to see if we have everything we need before leaving our careers. It’s about figuring out how to give up that daily “sugar rush”! In retirement, what’s the sugar substitute?

Giving Up the Rush

I love my job; I fought hard to get where I am, and the fire service job provides me with a strong sense of purpose.  There is a certain high to having a really cool job; and there’s a unique buzz associated with lights, sirens, big red trucks, and saving lives! Buzz!

I was the first woman to ever be a full-time fire chief in Ontario, only the third one in the country at the time I was hired.   It feels like there’s so much more to lose from retiring than there was from changing careers. It can be a tough fight to be a woman in the fire service and to rise even harder. 

Until recently, there weren’t enough women in the role of fire chief to make a golf foursome.  That makes me doubly proud to have been elected and serve two terms as the president of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs; also a female first in this country.  Accomplishments!  

Buzz, and accomplishments = I love what I do, and the emotional high I get from it.  Retirement means giving it up or finding a substitution.  That actually sounds like the definition of addiction.  Is retiring like quitting sugar?  My retirement equation has two options for tipping the scale one way or the other.  I can wait until I hate my job, or it starts making me sick.  Or, I look for new ways to replace the buzz.  Although I suppose going “Cold Turkey” is another option…again, just like quitting sugar.

 The Cold Turkey Method of Quitting Sugar

Let’s look at the “Cold Turkey” method first.  My friend Ryan announced his retirement last year, giving about three months’ notice.  And he did it in spectacular fashion!  The announcement – I’m retiring, selling everything, getting married, and moving to Cost Rica to open a five-star bed and breakfast! 

Wait,  what?!  At the ripe old age of forty-two, at the top of his game in his career as a very well respected (and destined for greater things) fire chief, he just retired.  Outta’ here, see ya’!  Although, based on this picture is it any wonder he chose to retire?

The Substitution Method of Quitting Sugar

Next, Tim chose to retire.  If there is such a thing as “the patch” for the fire service retirement addiction, my friend Tim has found it.  He chose to ease into retirement with a substitution.  Tim’s taking all his leadership skills, qualities, and municipal fire service know-how and opening his own consulting company. 

Yes, it’s still working; but he’s doing less, and totally on his own terms!  When Tim is working in Abu Dhabi next month, I hope he’ll let me live vicariously with an interview about what it’s like to work online while in another country.  Work and travel…nice combo!

The “Refusing to Quit Sugar” Method

This last method belongs to my friend Hope (Hopee to us).  She is a testament to “if you love what you do, it never gets old”.  As a professional photographer, Hopee is in her 70’s, still skis’ in the terrain park, and shows no signs of slowing down.  Hope is also the primary caregiver to her husband who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. 

Her job as a creative is coupled with an I’m never retiring attitude.  And I imagine that a positive attitude helps her cope with the holy crap, life just threw me a sour curve ball issue of being a full-time care provider.

 She is the best example of – if you don’t want/have to retire…don’t.  You’ll see some of Hopee’s pictures throughout my blogs in the future. She has no website and doesn’t need one.  The woman is phenomenally busy just by word of mouth.  But you can visit her Instagram page at Hopeerogers where you’ll see some of her amazing portraits of Raymond.  I see a one-woman show on the horizon! 

All three methods have great potential.  But I think the Substitution Method is more my style.  Tip the scale in favour of retiring by filling it with fun and interesting firsts, new hobbies, and interesting people.  It makes the decision about retiring feel easier.  And as for quitting sugar…don’t hold your breath!

The UPDATE

Life After Sugar

Like any addiction, work, sugar, we’re healthier without it! The withdrawal was brutal, but you get through it. And like any addiction, the way to cope with it often seems to be replacing it with a healthier habit.

Cheers,

Ryan and Casa Vitality in Costa Rica are doing fabulous, but he’s hardly gone “cold turkey”. Simple entrepreneurship wasn’t quite enough. Now his mix includes leading ATV tours, teaching English, and as a Dive Master, teaching SCUBA.

Tim needs a bigger patch! He’s still using the substitution method. He took on a new role, that perfectly matches his skillsets, and it was too good to pass up. But working on your own terms might still be the best way to ease into retirement. But if he re-re-retires, I’m not sending a card…Hallmark doesn’t make one like that!

I stayed on the creative writing path and strive daily to build content that helps people “of a certain vintage” find amazing places to go and fun things to do.

Sadly, Hope’s husband has passed. But she continues to just flat out avoid retirement (refuses to quit sugar) and thrives as an active, working artist and photographer. But consider this, maybe she’s really the smartest one of all. She doesn’t need to quit sugar, because she only ever ate it in a balanced way – moderation. And what I mean by that is that her life in her 70s looks just like her life in her 40s.

Maybe there’s no need to actually ever retire if you have a great work-life balance all along!

Cynthia