I love “The Parable of the Black Belt” as told by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last. The authors invite you to imagine a martial artist kneeling before the master sensei. The occasion is one the student has prepared long and hard for. After years of dedicated practice this is the ceremony where he hopes to be awarded his black belt.
The sensei begins, “Before granting the black belt, you must pass one more test.” “I am ready,” answers the student.
“You must answer the essential question: What is the true meaning of the black belt?”
“The end of my journey. A well-deserved reward for all my hard work,” replies the student.
The sensei, with a disappointed look on his face, responds, “You are not yet ready for the black belt. Return in one year.”
A year passes and the student is once again kneeling before the sensei. “What is the true meaning of the black belt?” the sensei asks.
“A symbol of distinction and the highest achievement in our art,” the student answers. The sensei, once again not satisfied, replies “You are still not ready for the black belt. Return in one year.”
A year later, after much thought and preparation, the student once again kneels before the sensei. “What is the true meaning of the black belt?” the sensei asks.
The student confidently replies, “The black belt represents the beginning – the start of a never-ending journey of discipline, work, and the pursuit of an ever higher standard.”
“Yes. You are now ready to receive the black belt and begin your work.”
What Is the True Meaning of Retirement?
As you contemplate retirement you should ask yourself the all-important question, “What is the true meaning of retirement?” If your answer is, “The end of my journey. A well-deserved reward for all my hard work and a chance to spend my time in ease and leisure,” then you are not ready for retirement.
A better answer for a committed Church member would be, “Retirement is a beginning – the start of a consecration adventure. A period of meaningful contribution and service – family service, community service, temple service, and working to build the Kingdom of God.”
One of my favorite authors, Stephen R. Covey, elaborates:
“There’s not much place in the Lord’s kingdom for ‘retirement.’…We may retire from an occupation, but we retire to serve missions on both sides of the veil. If we study the literature in the field of stress, we find that the key to staying healthy and vibrant is to stay involved in meaningful projects that continually excite and energize us. Such projects actually retard the degenerative forces in the body and strengthen the immune system; they can literally give us ten or more years of life. I think that’s one reason why many of the General Authorities are so active at an advanced age.
Since life is not a career but a mission, there’s no better retirement concept than the gospel: the work goes on, we’re in constant learning mode, and we continue to grow to the very end of our lives. Every person has enormous capacity, and we must not lose our opportunity to contribute as we get older. Our role as Latter-day Saints is to push forward the mission of the Church all of our days. For us, retirement is missionary work, priesthood and Relief Society work, family history and temple work, and community work. To bless other people is what our mission in life is all about. It will renew our bodies, minds, and our spirits; not only will we live longer, but we will also enjoy a higher quality of life. A life of consecration may require that we give up a few personal pleasures, but it will produce tremendous joy.”
If you doubt Stephen R. Covey’s observations about the vitality of Church leaders in their advanced age, look at the example of our beloved Prophet Russell M. Nelson, who recently celebrated his 96th birthday and is still leading the Church with power and vigor.
If you have done your best to live the temporal gospel during your working years – spending less than you earn and saving for the future – then hopefully you have enough money to meet your needs and just wants during retirement. Even if money is tight you will have an abundance of something perhaps even more valuable. Something that was in short supply during the years when you were working and raising a family – time!
Are we willing to consecrate our newly gained free time to the Lord during retirement? Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that consecrating ourselves and our time is perhaps even more difficult than consecrating our money:
“We tend to think of consecration only as yielding up, when divinely directed, our material possessions. But ultimate consecration is the yielding up of oneself to God.”
Fourth Quarters and Symphonic Crescendos
In the spirit of retirement being the beginning of a consecration adventure rather than a withdrawal from a lifetime of contribution the husband and wife writing team of Richard and Linda Eyre, in their book, Life In Full, offer a couple of powerful metaphors.
Richard and Linda both like to watch sports on TV, but Linda usually only watches the 4th quarters of games. Her reasoning is:
“…that is when the game is decided; it’s always the most consequential and usually the most exciting part of the contest. Players, though tired, lift their games and redouble their efforts. What happened in the first three quarters doesn’t matter much if the fourth quarter is stellar.”
Linda suggests, with life expectancy in the US at close to eighty years, perhaps we should divide our life into quarters. This would make the time from 60 to 80 years-old our own personal 4th quarter.
She continues, “…it should be the most consequential and the most exciting part of life. We may be a little tired and worn down in the fourth quarter, but we can lift ourselves and actually feel better than ever before and take our game to new levels. And again, remember the fourth quarter is full of time-outs and other ways to make the clock pause so that we can revise our game plans. We might have a medical procedure or a new diet or exercise plan or other methods of regrouping, all of which will make the fourth quarter longer.”
What if we are lucky enough to live past eighty, as is increasingly common? Linda suggests viewing these years as “overtime”, which is even more exciting and consequential than the 4th quarter.
This reminds me of something said by Lucile C. Tate, author of the biographies of several apostles, at my college graduation in 2001. Lucile, who was well into “overtime” in her life, shared the 10 words she had adopted as her motto:
“Work in place of worry. Faith in place of fear.”
She added, “Those words sustained me through each book I have written, and they must sustain me again if I am to complete my last biography, because I am 87 and only on chapter three.” Lucile was making the most of her “overtime”.
Richard Eyre uses a different metaphor to remind him of how he wants to live the final quarter of his life. Under the influence of Linda, Richard has grown to appreciate classical music. When they attend the symphony Richard states, “…it is the final movement that I love the most. That’s the one with the most emotion, and it’s the only one I can applaud after. Again, life is the same. It’s the final movement that brings it together.” Richard invites us to view the years we are granted beyond 80 as our encore.
A Consecration Adventure
My parents’ generation, the generation that survived The Great Depression and won World War II, is often referred to as “The Greatest Generation.” I was born in 1963 making me among the youngest of the “Baby Boom” generation. You could also refer to baby boomers as “The Luckiest Generation” as we have lived in a time of great prosperity and relative peace.
Baby boomers are currently either in retirement or contemplating retirement and the Eyres remind us that our good fortune continues. We have more wealth, better health, more free time, more connections, more knowledge, more wisdom, more technology, and more opportunity than any previous generation.
These blessings come with great responsibility. It would be a shame to waste all of that on nothing but leisure.
While leisure can be an important part of retirement it shouldn’t be the focal point. Retirement should be a new beginning, not an ending. A time to contribute and give back, not to withdraw. A time to do something meaningful. To help others and make the world a better place. A time to serve missions, serve our families, serve our communities, and build the Kingdom of God. Even a time of consecration.
How will you incorporate principles of consecration into your retirement? It will take some prayer, planning, and creativity but the goal for each of us should be to make retirement like an exciting 4th quarter or a symphonic crescendo – and the best way to do that is to turn your retirement into a consecration adventure.
The idea of retirement always perplexes me a bit. It sounds so boring. This put it into perspective a bit though. Great post!
Great to hear from you, Kelsey. Those that retire and think that rest, relation, and recreation get bored fairly quickly. The key to a happy retirement is to work on things that are meaningful and to give back with your free time. Glad you enjoyed the post.
This is really cool. Considering we just got a mission call, I hardly agree
Glad you enjoyed it, Professor Sudweeks. I heard you had retired and thought you might like it. Have a great mission and enjoy your consecration adventure.