Finding the Right 'Mix' in Life

I have often said that the perfect "retirement" is when you are doing what you love to do. If you are doing what you would choose to do if money were not an issue, you are living an ideal life. I am reflecting on that a lot lately as I approach my 57^th birthday (November 16—mark your calendars).

I am approaching an age when many people start to think about retirement, and I have the economic resources to never work again if I choose, but I simply can't imagine not doing what I do, which is making a difference in peoples' lives.

But it is not just a matter of what you do that defines your life. It's also a question of how much you do it. I have seen a lot of dentists who truly love dentistry reach a point of burnout. As much as they love being able to deliver excellent dental care and change lives, they feel overburdened by all the pressing concerns of running a practice and they find themselves longing for the day when they can retire and relax.

Not surprisingly, it is often dentists like this who ultimately end up finding retirement unsatisfying. As much as they don't miss the daily grind, they do miss being able to use the skills they developed over the course of a career to make a difference in peoples' lives.

The answer is obvious but often overlooked. Life doesn't have to be a "work vs. retirement" zero-sum game. This is especially true when you are in a profession like dentistry that gives you so many options. You shouldn't have to go all out for years and then suddenly give it all up. The main components of your life – how you spend your time and money and whom you choose to spend it with – will always be a mix. The secret is to adjust that mix according to where you are in life to achieve the optimal results.

That means you don't have to wait for the day when you can "walk away" in order to spend more time with your family and more money on travel. And you don't have to spend every day up until retirement keeping up with endless schedules of routine dentistry. Rather than wait for a retirement date, you can choose to adjust the dials. You can ease toward a schedule where you can eventually spend more time on only the kind of dentistry you enjoy, a couple of days a week, while mentoring a new owner to take over the daily operation of the practice. You can "fix the mix" to suit the life that suits you through every stage of your career.

So instead of focusing on that retirement finish line, try thinking in terms of the balance of your time, the value of your time and the context of what "retirement" can mean to you. Think of each year as 365 days of equal value, and then set out to get full value from each one no matter what you are doing.