The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Sign up for our next Designing Your Life small group coaching program starting in April here

__________________________

What happens when you’ve done everything “right” — built a successful career, made a difference, checked the boxes — and yet something still is missing?

Today I’m joined by Dave Evans, co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day and the #1 New York Times Bestseller Designing Your Life, and a longtime Stanford educator, to explore a question many people quietly wrestle with in the second half of life: Why doesn’t impact bring lasting meaning — and what actually does?

Dave shares insights from his newest work with Bill Burnett on meaning, presence, and what he calls the shift from role to soul. We talk about why chasing fulfillment often backfires, why the most meaningful moments are often small and fleeting, and how many of us live almost entirely in what he calls the “transactional world” — often missing the richness of the present moment that’s available right now.

This conversation is especially relevant if you’re nearing retirement, newly retired, or simply sensing that achievement alone isn’t enough anymore. Dave offers practical reframes, deeply human stories, and a powerful idea he calls the scandal of particularity — a concept that may completely change how you think about what a well-lived life really looks like.

Dave Evans joins us from California to discuss How to Live a Meaningful Life.

___________________________

Bio

Dave Evans is the co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day.

Dave has worked in alternative energy, telecommunications, and high tech. As an early member of the advanced systems group that built the technology that became the Macintosh, he led the first computer mouse team and laser-printing projects, before leaving to co-found the software giant Electronic Arts.

After more than thirty years of executive leadership and management consulting in the high tech world, Evans realized that what he really wanted and needed to do was help people rediscover purpose in their jobs and lives. He joined Stanford’s Design Program, teaching the incredibly popular Designing Your Life course.

In their book Designing Your Life, Dave Evans and co-author Bill Burnett, brought these principles to a larger audience, proving it’s never too late to design a life you love through innovation, creative problem-solving, and a growth mindset. Evans teaches audiences of all ages that the same principles used to create amazing technology and products can also be used to design and build a life filled with purpose and joy that is constantly creative and productive.

Dave Evans earned a Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and a graduate diploma in Contemplative Spirituality from San Francisco Theological Seminary. He lives in Santa Cruz.

_________________________

For More on Dave Evans

How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day

 Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans (2020 Podcast)

_________________________

Podcast Conversatons You May Like

The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD

Resurface – Cassidy Krug

The Purpose Code – Dr. Jordan Grumet

__________________________

About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.9 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

______________________

Wise Quotes

On Becoming

“The most essential definition of a human person is you’re a becoming. You’re constantly evolving into hopefully your more and more authentic self – never your complete self, by the way… there’s no way you’re ever going to get done.”

On Shifting from Role to Soul

“I think, particularly in that second half transition, you’re really looking at what we call the shift from role to soul. And by role, I am primarily identifying who I am as a person, my sense of what makes me who I am, is what I do in the roles and I have in the world, mostly in institutions called, you know, companies or employment or families. And I get this feedback loop from being the Dad, from being the General Manager, from being the mailman, or from whatever it is that says I’m doing the right thing, I’m getting paid for it, and the world’s a better place. And that’s the achievement feedback loop, which for most people that’s what we mostly hear from people is the primary thing. And as life moves along, even if you’re still achieving, I still have four part time jobs. But my relationship with that achieving role is very different than it used to be. And you start moving more and more where your life is really simply about expressing as authentically as you can in the world, who it is that you actually are.”

On the Scandal of Particularity

“The scandal of particularity is the recognition that all wonderful things only come in these small bite-sized pieces that are temporary, incomplete, partial, but reflections of the true thing. So if you radically accept you’re never going to get all of it, then you go, Oh, so what I really want to do is when the opportunity for some beauty or some truth shows up at all is dive all in, fully celebrate and enjoy it.”

What if creativity works like medicine? New research shows that regular engagement with the arts can slow biological aging, protect the brain, reduce stress, and promote a new sense of purpose, identity and meaning—especially in retirement. This episode reframes art as one of the most powerful, underused tools for healthy aging. Our guest today, Dr. Daisy Fancourt, is a leading researcher on the health impacts of arts engagement and the author of the new book Art Cure:The Science of How the Arts Save Lives. Her work bridges neuroscience, public health, and lived experience—bringing rigorous data to some things many people may dismiss as “just a hobby.” Listen in for insights on why engaging with art is a wise addition to your retirement plan.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

How arts engagement compares to exercise and sleep in its health impact

Why talent and skill have nothing to do with the benefits you can reap

How creativity builds cognitive reserve and protects against dementia

Why music is a powerful tool for wellness

How the arts can foster renewed identity, purpose, and community in retirement

Daisy Fancourt joins us from London.

________________________

Bio

Daisy Fancourt is the author of the new book Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives. She is Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London where she heads the Social Biobehavioural Research Group, and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. She has published 300 scientific papers and won over two dozen academic prizes. She is a multi-award-winning science communicator and has been named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and BBC New Generation Thinker. Daisy is listed as one of the most highly cited scientists in the world.

_________________________

For More on Daisy Fancourt

Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives

Website

_________________________

Podcast Conversatons You May Like

Tiny Experiments – Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Why You’ll Want a Hobby – Ashley Merryman

The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD

____________________________

About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

__________________________

Wise Quotes

On the Science Behind Arts and Health

“I started doing lots of research on the long-term impact of arts engagement across people’s lives using the same kind of data sets and methods that people had previously looked at exercise and diet and sleep. And I was honestly quite amazed at what came out about these associations between arts and future well-being, reduced risk of depression, enhanced cognitive function, reduced risk of chronic pain, frailty, dementia. And most excitingly, the effect sizes were very similar or sometimes even stronger than these other behaviours that we’re much more used to talking about in relation to our health.”

On Biological Aging

People who engage in the arts actually have increased connectivity between regions of the brain that are vulnerable to aging. So they actually have brains that are younger than people who don’t regularly engage in the arts. And actually, they have higher levels of cognitive reserve, so resilience of the brain against cognitive decline and dementia. But they also have different clinical biomarker patterns that indicate that they are physiologically younger. So better respiratory rates, lower cardiovascular stress, better levels of inflammation in their immune systems. And I think most excitingly, they even have patterns of gene expression in their DNA that are younger. So the way that their genes express themselves have a younger, what we call epigenetic age.”

On the I’m Not Creative Myth

“I think this is a slight failing in our societies because we tend to set ourselves up that you’re either artistic or creative or you’re not. And it’s a complete myth. Actually, most of the health benefits of the art come through doing it, regardless of whether you’re any good at doing it. And I think sometimes people have got hangovers, often from like childhood when they didn’t feel they sang in tune or when they weren’t good at doing art in class. But it’s surprising how often people can actually try new activities as an adult and actually discover a passion they had absolutely no idea about.”

On Music as Medicine

“Music is actually a natural pain relief. It releases endogenous opioids in our brain. But also it provides us with a beat that means we can synchronize with that beat and that can really help us with our movements. So when people exercise to music, they’re actually able to run faster for longer, they’re able to lift weights in the gym for longer. And if people have got conditions like Parkinson’s or they’ve had a stroke or another neurological disorder, then actually listening to music can be a way of improving balance, their walking speed and reduce the risk of falls as well.”

On Art in Retirement – and Purpose & Meaning

“Lots of people speak about losing their sense of purpose when they move out of that work environment and trying to figure out what their new purpose is. And arts engagement is a very effective way in so many trials now of increasing that sense of purpose. It’s a similar thing for cultivating a new sense of meaning. And there are lots of other aspects of our well-being, like a heightened life satisfaction, which is really important to people, particularly as they get older. And actually arts engagement is such a powerful way of helping to build all of those different aspects of our well-being.”

On the Daily Arts Practice

“If we’re looking at basically accumulating the health benefits of the arts over time, we need to have a really regular, sustainable arts practice. I recommend in the book that people try and figure out their equivalent of the kind of five-a-day vegetable rule that they could apply day to day. Could they set aside 15 or 20 minutes every day that they will reliably be able to commit to? But also, can they think about sort of simple ways that they could swap out activities in their lives to make that manageable?”

 

 

If you’re in, or approaching, a life transition and think, “I should have this figured out by now,” this conversation is for you. Today, mindfulness teacher Monique Rhodes shares how to move through that sticky in‑between space of “no longer who you were, not yet who you’re becoming” without beating yourself up. You’ll hear why happiness is an inside job, how to work with your mind when life blindsides you, and practical ways to rediscover joy and purpose with mindfulness—especially in retirement and other big life changes. We also discuss how mindfulness can help Type A people (like me and perhaps you…).

Monique Rhodes joins us from Costa Rica.

_________________________

Bio

Monique is an internationally acclaimed Happiness Strategist who teaches students and corporations around the world how to master their lives. She has spent the last 25 years studying the mind and its relationship to happiness and she believes that happiness is not merely an emotion but a daily habitual practice. Over 70 universities and colleges use her program The 10 Minute Mind®. Her 8-week online course, The Happiness Baseline, has a 100% success rate in raising the mental wellness for every student who has completed it. Monique hosts the daily In Your Right Mindpodcast, where she discusses how a series of small habits determine our well-being. She is also a singer, songwriter and producer born in New Zealand. She has toured the world performing and composing music bridging the worlds of contemporary music with modern spiritual teachers. Monique has produced two platinum selling albums in New Zealand, toured Europe twice with Chuck Berry and collaborated on music projects with some of the most well-known inspirational teachers in the world including the Dalai Lama.

_________________________

For More on Monique Rhodes

MoniqueRhodes.com

________________________

Podcast Conversations You May Like

Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson

The New Happy – Stephanie Harrison

What Matters Most – Diane Button

_________________________

Planning for retirement?

Chexck out our summaries of the Best Books on Retirement

_________________________

About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

__________________________

Wise Quotes

On Getting Unstuck

“So, one of the things that I see with my students is that the place that people get stuck most often is actually that we’re resisting what is. And so let’s say you make some New Year’s resolutions or you’re in the middle of a transition like retirement and you’re in the middle of that change and you think to yourself,  this shouldn’t be so hard and I should have figured this out by now. But what those thoughts do is they actually only tighten that knot. So if we’re looking at getting unstuck, you know, the way that I teach is we have to have this willingness to soften, to stop pushing, to actually sit with what’s here, even if it’s uncomfortable. And from what I’ve learned and what I’ve seen, this is really the ground of transformation. Because when we allow ourselves, Joe, just to be exactly where we are with all the uncertainty, with all the doubt, with all the longing, then we begin to loosen the grip on all the old habitual ways of being. And our heart opens. And in that openness, something new can emerge. So I invite you all to not push through, but just to rest in that middle place and let the aspiration be there, but also let the discomfort be there. And let yourself almost be held by this knowing that the moment that you’re in right now is actually part of the path.”

On Mindfulness…for Type As

“And this energy is very, very powerful, but it can also become a kind of armor and it can protect Type A people from seeing themselves, from vulnerability, from uncertainty. So, if I was talking to a Tai A personality who was a skeptic, I would first of all say it is mindfulness is amazing for Type A personalities. And what if you didn’t need to fix anything right now? What if there was nothing to improve, but just something to notice? Because at the heart of mindfulness, we’re not looking to change our nature or our personality. What we’re doing is we’re inviting you to become more intimate with yourself, to sit beside that aspect of yourself that strives and maybe ask, what am I afraid of and what am I avoiding? Because often as a Type A personality, what we’re avoiding is the discomfort of being with ourselves as we are. But if we can soften that resistance, even for a breath, even for 10 minutes a day, I tell you, something extraordinary happens. And we begin to feel so much more alive, more connected to ourselves. The endless, amazing results of meditation, our relationships change. We just deal with everything differently. We become more whole. So it’s really good for us to understand, which is why mindfulness is used in so many, you know, big companies around the world, is that mindfulness isn’t an enemy of ambition. It’s really a way to return to the ground beneath your striving, to be able to see that ground clearly, to feel deeply, to live more fully, which is why I totally believe it’s a superpower.”

On Why Happiness is an Inside Job

“The biggest misconception that I know is that people believe that happiness comes from outside of themselves. And that is such a mic drop moment to understand that happiness doesn’t. Happiness is an internal job. And the wonderful thing about that is it means that we’re in control of it. It means that if you want to be happier, you don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be powerful. You don’t have to be the most beautiful person in the world. I remember some years ago going to Las Vegas to hear Lady Gaga sing. And she was doing these kind of acoustic jazz Tony Bennett style concerts. It were really incredible. She was getting paid a million dollars a gig, Joe, and it was extraordinary. Here she is. She’s super wealthy. She’s beautiful. She’s successful. She’s powerful. And it was shocking for her to talk about how incredibly unhappy she is. So I think that’s one of the biggest things we need to understand is that all the things that we’re sold to believe will make us happy actually don’t. Because if they did, we would be able to look around the world to so many of the people that have all of them. And we can wonder why they’re not happy. So when we begin to understand that happiness is an inside job, then we actually have the incredible power to take control of it. So I think that that is probably the biggest misconception, but also the most powerful thing about it. And so that means that we need to learn to work with the thing that drives our happiness and our suffering, which is our mind. And if we can learn to work with our mind, then we can change our whole experience of the world.”

Last call… Design Your New Life in Retirement

New Groups start on Thursday 1/22 & Friday 1/23.

Join us…and design your next chapter.

Learn more and sign up here

_________________________

Bio

For decades, Anna Rappaport has studied how people actually transition out of full-time work—not in theory, but in real life. And what she’s learned may challenge how you’re thinking about retirement. Anna Rappaport hasn’t just studied retirement—she’s been living a phased retirement for three decades and is still going strong at 85. As a former Society of Actuaries President and one of the profession’s most published and respected retirement experts, she has insights you’ll want to hear.

So, today, we’re focusing on phased retirement, but not as an HR policy. We’re talking about it as a life strategy—one that blends purpose, flexibility, and relationships. Anna introduces a powerful framework she calls the Life Portfolio—Health, People, Pursuits, and Places—and explains why money alone is never enough for a fulfilling next chapter.

If you’re wondering Who will I be when I retire?, this conversation is for you.

Anna Rappaport joins us from Chicago.

________________________

Bio

Anna Rappaport is the founder and president of Anna Rappaport Consulting. Anna is an actuary, consultant, author, and speaker, and is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on the impact of change on retirement systems and workforce issues. She is a phased retiree and is passionate about women’s retirement security. Anna is a past-President of the Society of Actuaries and chairs its Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks and its Aging and Retirement Research Initiative Steering Committee. Anna spent 28 years with Mercer as an employee benefit consultant, before she founded her own firm, Anna Rappaport Consulting, after leaving Mercer.

_________________________

For More on Anna Rappaport

LinkedIn

A Conversation With Anna Rappaport & Steve Siegel: Solo-Agers Disconnect

Thinking About the Future of Retirement

_________________________

Podcast Conversations You May Like

Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile

The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace

Is Your Company Ready for the Aging Workforce? – Paul Rupert

_________________________

About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

__________________________

Wise Quotes

On The Portfolio You’re Ignoring

“The Life Portfolio assumes that the individual has enough money. So this is on top of money—it’s not instead of money. That’s really important. The four quadrants are: Health, Pursuits, People, and Places. If you’re not in good health, nothing else matters. But pursuits—the things that give you a sense of purpose in your life—that’s critically important. And here’s the key: you need a portfolio of them, not just one or two. Because you can always lose one or two. If your pursuit is playing tennis, you might not be able to play tennis anymore. If it’s work, it might disappear. So people should try to do a few things, see what they like, zero in on it, but not be limited to one thing.”

On The Reboot, Rewire, Retire Concept

“Rather than saying ‘Okay, I’m done with work, I’m going to play golf all the time,’ Reboot is thinking about this life portfolio. What can I do that brings value to my life? We went around the table asking what people were most concerned about regarding retirement. The biggest issue wasn’t money, wasn’t health, wasn’t caregiving—it was ‘who am I going to be when I’m not who I was anymore?’ That was a real wake-up. Rewire is getting ready—building new skills, keeping up your contacts, maintaining your skills. Those are critical things.”

On Preparing for Phased Retirement

“The preparation you should do is not when you’re ready for phased retirement—it should be way before that. Think about career planning where you’re always focusing on how you’re creating value. You need to have ways of creating value. If you have a good relationship with your employer, you can work something out. I was probably the most published and well-known retirement person in my firm at Mercer. You need credibility. Learn to use their words, not ours—if I’m talking actuarialese to my client, they’re like ‘what?’ But if I’ve translated that to their language, it’s a lot better.”

On Identifying Where You Add Value

“I think the big benefit for employees is that they have much more satisfying lives. There are also a lot of people who they get near what like the traditional retirement ages and they want to spend more time with their grandchildren. They want to take more vacations. They want to pursue a hobby, but they don’t just want to say, my work life is over. And it gives them a variety of options. So I think there’s a lot of benefit. It’s really a way of this gradually changing pursuits. And it may involve money and it might not involve making more money. But it does involve value. Now there can be, and we had a Society of Actuaries essay on employees and both, we’ve discussed the value a number of times. We’ve also discussed the routes to phased retirement because it’s not an easy deal that just automatically happens. Not usually. For employers, it’s a different thing. Depending on the kind of employer and the kind of job that people have, it lets them keep value that people have contributed. And what I want to say is that if we look at employees, and of course it varies by type of employment, there’s firm-specific human capital and there’s general human capital. And for example, if you were a currency trader, you could probably move into one job to another in two minutes. But Joe, you were a human resource director, and you had years and years of history, a lot of firm-specific human capital. What we have not done a good job of, and this is a speech I’ve been making for 25 years, probably maybe 30, is identifying what are the things that you contribute, that you really contribute value. It might be that 10% or 20% of your job, you’re doing something where you’re contributing a lot of value. And what I think is really important is for the employee to figure out how they can contribute a lot of value and the employer to figure out, and for them to reach a meeting of the minds.”

Don’t just retire.

Design.

Join us in our group program. Two new groups starting on January 22 & 23.

Don’t put off planning for your life in retirement.

Take the first step today.

_________________________

What does it truly mean to age well in a world where longevity is increasing, but health spans vary wildly? In this episode, we meet with Dr. Arnold Gilberg, author of The Myth of Aging: A Prescription for Emotional and Physical Well-Being. Dr. Gilberg challenges the traditional definition of retirement, arguing that total withdrawal from professional life can lead to loneliness and decline. Instead, he advocates for “semi-retirement” and finding new ways to stay needed, including his own journey of entering rabbinic training. Tune in to hear his wisdom on adapting your physical fitness as your body changes, the power of self-forgiveness, and why exercising your brain is just as critical as exercising your body.

Dr. Arnold Gilberg joins us from Los Angeles.

__________________________

Bio

Arnold L. Gilberg, MD, PhD, received his bachelor’s degree in political science and Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois. He interned at the Los Angeles General Medical Center. He is the last person alive trained by Franz Alexander, MD, a distinguished colleague of Sigmund Freud. His psychiatric training took place at the  Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was chief psychiatric resident. He also has a doctorate in psychoanalysis from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute.

Dr. Gilberg is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the former clinical chief of psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and an associate clinical professor at UCLA School of Medicine (honorary).

He served for ten years under three different governors on the Medical Board of California for LA County, and has treated thousands of patients in his Los Angeles-based practice.

Today he lives with his wife in LA, where he continues to see patients on a regular basis.

___________________________

For More on Dr. Arnold Gilberg

The Myth of Aging: A Prescription for Emotional and Physical Well-Being

At 89, he’s heard six decades of L.A.’s secrets and is ready to talk about what he’s learned

___________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

Shift – Ethan Kross

Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD

The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD

____________________________

About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.

In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

__________________________

Wise Quotes

On Retirement

“Retirement is very loosely defined. And for some people, retirement is going from working six days a week to working four days a week. And people think, oh boy, I’m really retired. I’m working less. And especially if you like your job. And I think people who really like their work and what they’re doing should seriously consider whether retirement, total retirement, is something they want to do. Because for most professions or work, people don’t have to completely retire. They can semi-retire and work two or three days a week if that potential is given to them. Take, for example, myself. I don’t feel like really completely retiring. I’m proud of the fact that I’m 89 years old, and I still work a couple of days a week seeing patients because I like what I do. It makes me feel needed. And the hospital that I attend at tells me I can’t retire. Well, let’s talk about myself. I think my working allows me to remain involved, sing patients, sing other professionals, engaged in some teaching. And we know that people struggle with loneliness. And I do address that in my book The Myth of Aging. There’s a recent study that came out that in the United States today, one out of three people are lonely, which leads to depression, leads to anxiety, leads to psychiatric problems, leads to suicide, leads to drug abuse, and a variety of other condition. So the idea that a person remains engaged in their profession in some way is very critical, and people need to seriously take a look at their retirement, or if they are going to retire, what they might do following their retirement.”

On Adapting

“We all continue to adapt. And I think recognizing that is important. And also not beating up on yourself about these adaptations that take place. People don’t forgive themselves and people are always ready to jump on themselves. And we need to understand that this type of adaptation is very, very important and to accept it and be grateful for it. I enjoyed running marathons, Los Angeles primarily, and it’s nice for me to hold on to the memory, but I’m not really there anymore. I’m in a different place. I’m happy that I can go to our gym and exercise for 25 or 30 minutes, you know, and come up fatigued. And I feel good about that. And my wife feels similarly. We’re both at that place and we enjoy the fact that we can at least do this.”

On Doing Something New

“Well, for most people, I think trying to find something new to do, especially after you’re retired, is very critical for cognitive brain functioning because it keeps your mind at work. And we know today, neurologically, that people need to exercise their brain just as they exercise the rest of their body. So people who retire and find something new to do are helping themselves. I must say there is a small segment of the population who enjoy being retired, moving to a cabin in Northern California or Montana, and being very satisfied in that life situation. But for most of us, that doesn’t work. And so for me, I’ve always had an attachment to faith and spirituality, which I think ultimately provides people with a sense of community.”