We often hear the question: What will they say about you when you’re gone? While legacy is important, perhaps the more pressing question is this:

Who will you be when the meetings and emails stop?

As you retire (or begin winding down from full-time work) and your calendar opens up and the calls for your expertise quiet down, how will you define yourself?

For many professionals, work is more than just a paycheck. It shapes your identity, your daily structure, your social network. You’re not just in a role you are the role: the teacher, the engineer, the executive. So, when the work ends it’s natural to feel a void. And yet, much of retirement planning focuses only on finances, overlooking something equally critical: your sense of self.

This is where a phased approach to retirement can make all the difference.

By gradually stepping back from full-time work, you give yourself space to explore who you are outside your job title—before making a full transition. This approach offers time to rediscover hobbies, build new routines, and reconnect with parts of yourself that may have been sidelined during your career.  Heck, it even allows you to try other types of work like a friend who ‘retired’ from running a consulting firm to take on work with an investment firm, something he’d set aside decades ago.

Think of it not just as retiring from something, but as moving toward something meaningful. And you have to discover what that is that’s unique to you.

Some starter questions to ask yourself:

• What activities energize me—even without a paycheck attached?
• What skills or passions have I postponed exploring?
• Who do I want to spend more time with, and how can I nurture those relationships?
• What kind of impact do I still want to make, even on a smaller or more personal scale?

These are essential building blocks for a retirement that feels purposeful, joyful, and truly yours.

A phased retirement gives you time to envision, experiment, adjust, and build a post-career identity intentionally. It helps ease the emotional transition and allows you to shape a future where you are defined by what fulfills you – not just by what you did day in and day out.