What Are Your Freedom Years?

Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about time differently.

For years, there was never enough of it. Work filled a big part of the week. There were things that had to get done at home, people who needed something, appointments, errands, plans and all the ordinary responsibilities that somehow managed to fill whatever time was left.

And like a lot of people, I kept a mental list of things I’d do someday.

• Someday I’d travel more.

• Someday I’d have more time for the things I enjoy.

• Someday I’d learn something completely new.

• Someday I’d slow down enough to figure out what I actually wanted to do instead of what I needed to do.

Then you reach a point in life when someday doesn't feel quite so far away.

I'm not talking about suddenly having an empty calendar or abandoning all of our responsibilities. Life doesn't work that neatly.

But after 50, something does begin to change.

The kids may need us differently. We may be established enough in our careers to start thinking about what comes after them. Retirement begins to feel like an actual decision rather than something happening in some distant future.

And perhaps, for the first time in a very long time, we can begin thinking about our lives in terms of possibilities instead of obligations.

That thought is what led me to Your Freedom Years.

I don't think of the freedom years as a particular age, and I don't think they begin the day you retire.

They're the years when you begin to have more say over something incredibly valuable:

your time.

And once you realize that, a much more interesting question appears:

What do I actually want the next 20 or 30 years of my life to look like?