Keeping Your Ikigai After Retirement

Retirement often takes you away from an engaging social environment, and social interaction is thought to be necessary in establishing "cognitive reserve," a brain-backup system that allows you to function normally despite age-related brain damage. Once you retire, you're also less motivated to participate in mentally stimulating activities. For instance, if you no longer need to read the business section to study your competition, you may not read the paper at all. Both of these are variations on the "Use it or lose it" theory of cognition. Instead of treating retirement as a time to take it easy, I propose a different path. In Japan they call it ikigai, which means "the reason for which we wake up in the morning." Finding that reason for living is critical, especially in the United States, where so much of our ikigai seems tied to our careers.