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Your Work Will Last Forever
If you do a good enough job
I wonder if Marilyn Monroe was wrong.
She once said, “A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.”
Of course, I know what she meant. A career can’t possibly replace loved ones. The companionship and affection of your spouse curled up in bed together at the end of the day is a wonderful thing.
And yet, whenever I get together with retired, senior friends, we often discuss our past careers.
Sure, spouses and family come up here and there. But career exploits and stories about work get brought up more often. And usually, there’s a sparkle in my friends’ eyes as they reminisce about their past jobs.
If you think about it, for a good part of our lives, we spend nearly as much time with work colleagues as we do with our families.
Yes, there are exceptions—people who work from home, or who run a business with their spouse. But most people leave home and go to work somewhere.
That’s what I did for over 26 years.
I left home daily and drove a short distance to the police department. In the early years, I was a patrol officer and worked various shifts.
Sometimes I was gone all day. Other times I worked all night. Then, in later years, as a police administrator, I worked all day, Mondays through Fridays, with weekends off. Later, as police chief, even my weekends were interrupted by special events.
There were times I resented work.
It took me away from my family. It could be exhausting and stressful. There were so many responsibilities and challenges to handle. Toward the last few years of work, I fantasized about being retired.
About the freedom.
Retiring is just practicing up to be dead
I wasn’t alone.
Most senior law enforcement professionals I worked with also talked about retirement. They envisioned more family time, golf, fishing trips, travel, and immersion in their hobbies. “I can’t wait,” so many of them said.
