Finding Your Calling in Retirement

What does "calling" mean when the 9-to-5 is behind us?

At a recent meeting of our retired men’s group, we explored this critical and sometimes challenging question: What is our calling in retirement? For much of our lives, our calling may have been closely tied to our careers. But when our job titles retire along with us, our sense of purpose doesn’t—and shouldn’t—go with them.

Instead, retirement offers a unique opportunity to revisit and redefine our calling for this new stage of life.

Four Questions to Discern Your Retirement Calling

A helpful framework presented in our session centered on four questions—developed initially to guide vocational choices—but equally applicable as we reflect on our next chapter:

1. What does the world need?
   Retirement doesn’t mean retreat. There are still needs all around us—family members, neighbors, church, nonprofits—places where our presence, wisdom, and availability can make a difference.
2. What do you love to do?
   This is your chance to prioritize joy. What energizes you? What interests have long been sidelined? Your calling in retirement might include long-neglected passions, hobbies, or causes.
3. What are you good at?
   A lifetime of work builds skills and experience. What can you offer now—mentoring, teaching, leading, listening, writing? You might be surprised how your old strengths can find new life in different settings.
4. What can you be paid to do?
   For some, retirement includes part-time work, consulting, or starting something new. But even unpaid roles can be “compensated” through meaning, growth, and community. The key is whether the work is rewarding in the broadest sense.

A Calling That Evolves

One of the most freeing insights from the session was this: Callings can change. Unlike the rigid career ladder of earlier life stages, retirement offers more flexibility to explore multiple interests or experiment with new roles.

Ask yourself:

• Do I have one clear calling or multiple smaller ones?
• Is there something I feel drawn to now, or might a new purpose emerge later?
• Am I open to a temporary calling—something for this season only?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Your calling in retirement may be broad, like serving your community. Or it may be specific, like tutoring, caregiving, or creating art.

Three Strategies for Transitioning into a New Calling

The session also highlighted three practical strategies for discerning and living out your calling in retirement:

1. Develop a “calling on standby.”
   If you’re not quite ready to dive in, identify areas where you feel drawn to contribute, then watch for opportunities to step in as they arise.
2. Conserve your vocational calling.
   Many retired men continue to utilize skills from their careers in new ways—whether by coaching a team, volunteering in leadership roles, or sharing industry knowledge with younger professionals.
3. Redefine your calling from scratch.
   For some, retirement is a blank slate. That can be neither very safe nor very liberating. You’re free to create a whole new chapter, one guided by values, interests, and availability.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re five days or five years into retirement, your calling still matters. It may look different from the role you played in your career, but it can be just as meaningful, perhaps even more so.

Let’s keep asking the questions. Let’s keep exploring what we are called to do—and who we are called to be—in this next season of life.