After retiring from Starbucks at the age of 53, Paula Boggs journeyed to her vacation home in Santa Fe, where she suddenly found herself free of the obligations that had shaped her professional life. The phone calls, email notifications and meeting reminders were basically nonexistent. She was living the dream, so to speak, but soon realized that acclimating to this strange and wondrous world was slightly more difficult than she originally anticipated.
“I think ACC members will empathize with being wired to act certain ways, and respond to certain things in studied ways, based on our career,” says Boggs. “Those innate physical and emotional responses don’t stop solely by virtue of leaving a job and deciding to do something else with your life.” Instead, as Boggs knows from experience, “rewiring” your body and mind takes time and discipline. For example, if you normally slept five hours per night throughout your career, you will actually need to train yourself to sleep for seven.
