I'm thinking today about redefining yourself in retirement ...not only how you go about doing it, but why it is mandatory that you do.

Most of us live our lives blissfully unaware of the identity box that we have created for ourselves. Actually it is probably a series of nested boxes. Perhaps you have a manager identity nested inside a project management specialist identity which in turn nests inside a telecommunications box which in turn nests inside a 'worker' identity box. If you talk to people who've been downsized or who have already retired you'll discover that there comes a moment when they realize that all of those identity 'boxes' fall away and they find themselves sitting there feeling very naked, vulnerable and quite possibly very insecure.

Because identity tends not to have much rational about it. We can convince ourselves that we have money in the bank, that our spouse loves and supports us, that our friends are excited for us because we are moving into a whole new phase of life. Yet that moment inevitably arrives.

I remember when I volunteered to take my company's downsizing offer about a decade ago. I was excited and committed to a new future. My company gave me a 3-yr planning horizon for the shift and extensive coaching and support in making the transition. I had educated myself, taken re-training, done extensive internal explorations and I was pumped. Then a few months after I had formally left my employment I was in some administrative situation where I had to fill out a form that inquired about my employment. As excited as I was about being the President of my own company when I reached to fill in that spot I felt all the air leave my bubble of excitement. All of a sudden I became aware that the corporate employment identity that had been behind me all my life was no longer there.

Yes, I filled in the form with my new information and I got whatever it was I was applying for, but that moment of realization stuck with me for months as I really settled into my new reality. I was no longer a wage slave; I would never again be able to rely on having the name of a big corporation as the deep back-up for who I was in the world.

I have seen numerous clients experience a similar crisis of identity when they have left corporate workplaces. I wonder how many people to have stepped over the edge into retirement have had a similar experience and what it's impact has been on their lives. For me, these are life's big moments. The ones that open up the possibility and potential for us to surprise ourselves and choose to become so much more than we ever thought possible. What I'm curious about today is whether any of us can ever anticipate these moments and take actions that will avoid them ...or do they simply pop up when we least expect them and they become our invitations to become more.

Because I don't believe that Identity is meant to be a static thing. We are is always meant to be changing and evolving. Do we have the courage to let go of what has defined us and move into the undefined world of the future?