I was a management analyst.  That is no longer my job.  I retired.  Being a management analyst is still part of my identity, but it is no longer a good description of who I am. My retirement goals are not about becoming a better management analyst or about even being a management analyst.

Once I retired, it only took a couple days to realize management analyst no longer describes who I am.  I turned in my ID key card.  They waited for my retirement to remodel my former workspace. My space has been replaced by a new configuration of meeting rooms and a break room.  I may still have the skill set needed to do management analysis work. What I no longer have is that job. I do not regret having been a management analyst, however, I am moving on.

My old job was largely satisfying.  I liked most of the people I worked with.  However, it was how I made my living, it was not my life.  Management analyst matched my skill set and I enjoyed the work.  It was a decent way to earn a living and being a management analyst became a large part of my identity.

The weird thing is, now that I am not a management analyst I do not feel there is a vacant hole in my identity.  I was me then and I am still me now.  The sun still rises in the morning and sets in the evening.  My life changed upon retirement, but I still spend 24 hours a day being me.  My identity is not about my old job.  My life is about how I spend my time now.  My identity is about my life now and not what it was a couple months ago.

It is a cliché but life is a journey, not a destination.  Turns out my identity is also about the journey and not some sort of destination.  I am a work in progress.  My identity is a person who is trying to move forward on the journey I call my life

So, now that I am no longer a management analyst, who am I?  The reality is that while much has changed, mostly the fundamental stuff is the same.  My sleep schedule is a bit different, however, I probably get about the same amount of sleep as I used to.

I still eat food. All of my bodily functions are pretty much the same.  Socially, I still interact with people both in person and online.  I still have friends.  I still do things with them.  I am a student at the U of MN, so I am still trying to learn new things, some of which are challenging.  My daily routine has changed but the results are pretty much the same.  The house gets maintained, laundry gets done, meals get prepared and eaten.

Most days, I still create a mental to-do list and get some satisfaction from completing the tasks on the list.  I still try to have some long-term, mid-term and short-term items on my mental list.

The short-term items give me a daily feeling of having accomplished something.  The long-term items are more like goals that I spend at least a little time working on. Taking classes to try to be a better writer is a long-term goal.  Long-term to-do items give me a sense of heading in a positive direction.  The mid-term items give me a sense of working on something of a bigger scale than making the bed.  Cleaning out a lifetime of old stuff as we transition to a lifestyle with less baggage or weight is an example of a mid-term goal.

I no longer have a job so, yes, my identity is a bit different.  The fact that I no longer have a job does not make me a different person.  I still have short-term, mid-term and long-term goals.  I still work every day to make those goals a reality.  I still have hope that I can make a positive difference in the world.  I still try to make that hope a reality.  The venue where I try to implement my hope has changed.  I no longer work at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.  I am still an environmentalist but the environment is no longer where I focus as much of my energy.

All of that said I am still who I was, which is a person working on becoming a better me.  My identity is still evolving like it always has been.  As long as I can remember my goal and my identity have always been to just keep moving forward and to help others around me to do the same.

What we perceive often depends on how close we look.
Scaleandperception.com