What Drives You?

This past week Jason Kelce announced his retirement from the National Football League.  Many professional athletes painfully agonize on when it’s to “hang up” the tools of their craft that they have known for so many years.  They have to ask themselves if they have those tools to keep them playing at the high level that they have aspired to?  Do I want to put my body and mind through the preparation of a one-hour game that I spend weeks, months, even years preparing for?  Why do they put themselves through all the work week in and week out?  Because they make a lot of money? Because of the status of being a professional athlete? Or just because they love it?  There are many reasons why people work.  Because it challenges them, because it keeps them accustomed to the lifestyle that they are living.  A sense of accomplishment, or just pride.

Why do we work?  Do we work for those reasons listed above?  What happens when we retire or are not able to work anymore.  We have a pension or take a part-time job to stay busy: or even start a new career.  Some take the time to travel or spend time with loved ones, travel or start a new hobby or that “honey do” list that has built up over  the years. 

What drives us to work?  Not just the vehicle, but what motivates us to work.  Besides paying bills and wanting to live, why do we want to get up and go to work each day.  Is it our families that makes us go to the job?  We all have different motivators that make us get out of bed every morning.

What happens to the relationships that we make after we retire?  What happens to those co-workers who are almost a second family, what happens to that family?   Athletes miss the comradery of the locker room, all striving for that one thing to win a championship.  What about the others that work is that so we all go home safe every day, is it finishing that project ahead of schedule or on time or maybe saving a life, or just  giving their life to something greater than themselves is maybe the accomplishment that we all need.

So when we retire, how will we make that decision?  Will we be sad or relieved?  Will we miss our co-workers or just the work itself.  We are all driven by different reasons to work or not to work.