Anti Retirement Planning: Same Old Songs Brand New Dance

My wife has been on me for years.

“Why are you keeping all these cassettes and CDs? You never use them.”

Well, a couple of weekends ago, one of our neighbors was showing off his 1980s something IROC Z-28 (I’m not a car guy).

The car has a cassette player, but being from a post-cassette generation, all he had for music was a worn-out copy of Princes’ “Around The World In A Day.”

I love Prince, but songs like “Raspberry Beret” aren’t proper IROC music.

Thankfully I was able to hook him up with some 80s selections like Ratt's “Out Of The Cellar,” Guns n’ Roses “Appetite For Destruction,” an early 90s country mixtape I got from an ex (he took for when his wife was riding along) and a few more prime 80s staples.

Geekin’ Out

It was fun sifting through the cassettes with him and seeing his anticipation of pushing one of these bad boys into the player and pressing play.

Like how I felt leaving the record store with a fresh copy of music back in the day.

It’s even more fun imagining how awesome it will be for him to cruise down the road with tunes blaring. Not many feelings better than that.

I’m so glad I’ve kept my collection.

They have not outlived their usefulness.

Anti-Retirement

This got me thinking about retirement.

If I had gotten rid of the cassettes, I would have missed out on a pretty cool experience.

Kind of like work.

If I stop sharing my skills, interests, and experiences in a useful way, I and whoever else I might be able to help, will miss out.

I will essentially stop living.

Fuck. That.

The Takeaway.

So I’ll leave you with this.

As long as you exist, and no matter how old or outdated you “think” you are, you can enhance someone else’s life by sharing your skills, interests, and experiences.

You’ll get to relive those feelings of connection, excitement, and purpose again and again.

And if you can feel that again and again, why would you want to retire?

You can live until you die and maybe be remembered for a little bit longer after you're gone (BONUS!).

So, start thinking about what you want to do for the rest of your life.

Think about how you can help others and love every second of it.

Take Me Home

And speaking of Guns n” Roses and proper driving music, let’s wrap up this post with a trip to Paradise City.

One of those songs that never seems to get old.

As always, thanks for reading.

Have a good one,

Corey