Finding Purpose
Last March, I lost my Dad. He was 88… although if you asked him, some days he’d tell you he was 87. Other days, 60.
That was the reality of the final years—his memory slowly fading, even as his body stayed strong.
Watching that decline was hard.
But what stayed with me most wasn’t how his life ended…It was how he lived it. For the last 10 years of his life, my Dad lost something many people don’t think about until it’s gone:
𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞.
When my Mom got sick, everything shifted. He became her caregiver. He never complained. Not once. It wasn’t the retirement he planned for. But it became the one that fulfilled him.
After she passed, something changed. The role that had shaped his days, his identity, his reason to get up in the morning…
𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞.
And like so many people in retirement, he was left asking a question no one had prepared him for:
𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭?
In his final days, I asked him a simple question:
“What’s one word you would use to describe your life?” He didn’t hesitate. "𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭".
For all the uncertainty… all the loss… all the unexpected turns… He still saw his life as excellent. And yet—he had one regret: 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞. It was something my Mom had always wanted too… But life—and then illness—got in the way.
That conversation has stayed with me. Because it reinforced something I’ve come to believe deeply—both personally and through my work:
𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲.
It’s about having:
-A reason to get up in the morning
-A sense of identity beyond a role
-Structure to your days
-People to share life with
-And the awareness to not wait on the things that matter most
This is what I call 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐢𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬™.
And if there’s one lesson my Dad’s life gave me, it’s this:
𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 “𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐲” 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭.
Because even a life described as “excellent”…Can still carry a quiet wish at the end. If you’re approaching this next chapter, the question isn’t just:
𝐀𝐦 𝐈 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲?It’s: 𝐀𝐦 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠?
