I had this thing, and I would chat to patients in the practice that I'd met for the first time, which made me laugh. If I had a younger couple who were coming to see me, one of them is the patient, the other is an advocate, and they had to say one child, I would ask them if there were any plans for any more. I always use that as a test. Generally, if the lady hesitated before she said no, I would laugh and say to the guy, I think you're having more. The thing about that situation is that you can say I don't want any more children lots of times, but you only have to say you might do once, and you may be having more children.
It's kind of the same with retirement, I think.
I would be lying if I said I've never thought about retirement, because so many people around me seem to be thinking about it, or even executing it and so there are times when I fantasise about what it would be like if I had no obligation to anyone anymore, and only an obligation to myself, (and a minor obligation to Alison because she has her own life, and she doesn't need me to fill any of that for her).
And so even though I've stated and am aiming to work till I'm 85, I do have little fantasy moments about retirement, and then I have time off work, and then I realised that I can't be trusted and it wouldn't work. There's a famous old saying, isn't there, ‘if you want something done, ask a busy person’.
In my fantasies about retirement, I would wake up early in the morning, around about 6:30am or 7 am, and make myself a coffee. Sit, read the paper, and ponder life for a few minutes.
Walk the dogs and then train, something like swimming or bike riding or weight training.
I would then have breakfast with Alison.
After which point I would decide who I was having lunch with a meeting at lunchtime that day, I would meet someone for lunch and then I would probably go and play golf (I have a fantastic golf club now 2 miles from my house that my brother-in-law is a member of).
I would play golf in the afternoon, and then I would socialise a little and then come home and then cook dinner, and then either go out in the evening or watch something on TV or whatever.
Sounds like paradise.
But I wouldn't.
I would get up a little bit later than I was supposed to get up and sit for a little bit longer.
I'd walk the dogs a little bit longer, and then all of a sudden it would be the middle of the morning or later.
I'd miss breakfast with Alison.
I'd go for lunch with someone, I'd be bored, wondering what I was for and what I was all about.
And then I would go and play golf badly and then be annoyed with the people I played golf with, and then I would have a pint after golf, and then the next day I would have 2, and then it would be 4, and then it would be harder to get up in the morning.
Then I wouldn't cook dinner, and then I would get lost in the television until late at night.
I am my own worst enemy.
I'm not continuing to work because I have to, not because I have to do it, to pay into my pension or to keep myself in the style I'm accustomed. I'm continuing to work because I have to.
Because the alternative for me would be a lack of discipline, which would make me a much worse version of myself.
The risk of course is going back to the top of this, is that you only have to say you're retiring once and then you're done and then there's no way back and so whenever the fantasy comes to me that I'm too busy or too stressed or doing too much of someone else's work, that it would be better if I stopped, then I can think about exactly what it would be like if I stopped.
Perhaps read this, and then get back to work.
Blog Post Number - 4398
Colin Campbell, Chris Barrow, and an intrepid group of dentists will be cycling across the plains of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in early February 2026. If you would like to support the charity, Bridge to Aid, and this extraordinary challenge, please click here.Thank you for your generosity.
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