Longevity Bonus

Here in Atlanta, we've had the pleasure of seeing and listening to Ken Dychtwald. Natasha's been a big fan of him and his body of work. He's chronicled the life and times of us Baby Boomers and our impact on, well, everything. Cool stuff.

One of Dr. Dychtwald's themes is that Boomers (and the generations following us) are planning a "cyclical life". Instead of going to school for 20 years, working for 40 or 45 and retiring for how many years after that you're blessed with, our generation is cycling in and out of education, work and leisure time throughout our lives. Dychtwald calls these periodic periods away from work as "Longevity Bonuses". Fact is, we're all living longer. And, rather than taking advantage of those extra years when we're 85, we're using them earlier. These are times of 1-10 years when we step away from work to learn something new, explore, refresh and recharge. Then, we tackle the next chapter of our work with renewed passion.

This wasn't the first time we'd heard this message. But, being months away from stepping away from full time work to fulltiming for a few years, we found it most inspiring. No longer are we wondering if our great escape is retirement or sabbatical. Now we know it's a longevity bonus!