Do you feel a sense of loss when you realize your days are numbered in your current job, position, or career? Is that feeling strangely mixed with anticipation and even excitement? Soon there will be no more back-to-back meetings, no more emails answered on vacation, no more subtle power games. You will finally have the luxury of owning your time.

So why is the joy tainted with anxiety? Why does it feel like you are entering a grey zone? Why does this phase suddenly seem like “the last segment” of your life?

Several forces are pulling you in opposite directions, so it’s no wonder the result feels uncomfortable, even painful. Let’s untangle this inner conflict that drains your energy and clouds your vision of the future.

There Is No Script Anymore

For decades, you have been driven. As a professional and as a person, you always knew the direction: grow, climb, build, launch, succeed, fail, rebound, stay in the game.

There was a blueprint. From student to junior, to high potential, to senior professional, the path was visible. Growth was the norm. Progress was expected. Society celebrated it. Work culture reinforced it. You were part of a clear narrative.

And then, suddenly, the narrative ends.

When a career comes to an end, there is no obvious script to follow. Terms like “Golden Years” or “Silver Power” sound like marketing slogans, not like real life. They feel impersonal. Abstract. Detached from who you actually are.

Yet expectations are still there.

The Discomfort of Being “Decoupled”

For years, you were expected to deliver, to perform, to evolve. The system relied on your productivity. The culture rewarded your ambition.

Now, no one expects anything in particular from you. You may feel like a wagon decoupled from the train. The train keeps moving. You are standing still.

It is a relief. And it is deeply unsettling.

People around you enthusiastically describe all the things you will finally have time for: golf, travel, gardening, painting, yoga, cycling, learning languages, family time. None of these are wrong. But the more they insist on your future happiness, the more confused you may feel.

The real issue is not activity. It is purpose.

It’s Time to Get Real, Brave—and Creative

You cannot build a house without a blueprint. And at this stage of life, no one hands you one.

You must design it yourself.

This requires honesty. Who are you, beyond your title? What do you value now? What parts of your former professional identity do you want to keep—and which ones are you ready to release?

You may need to let go of a persona that served you brilliantly in the past but no longer fits the person you are becoming. That is not failure. It is evolution.

Explore what makes you feel alive. Curious. Energized. Then sketch your own blueprint and start building.

Yes, it is scary.

But it is also liberating.

This time, you are the architect, the builder, and the owner of a life designed on your own terms.