…
A funny thing happened this week.
Retirement finally made me sad.
Which feels like interesting timing because when this lands in your inbox, I’ll be retiring from education tomorrow! Eeek.
Whew.
I’m excited. Truly.
I was standing in my dining room putting away flowers, decor, and the last little pieces from Nathaniel’s wedding while getting ready to clean out two classrooms this weekend, when it hit me.
This is real.
Not in the abstract “someday I’ll retire” kind of way.
The real kind.
The part I didn’t expect to grieve
I’ve already done some thinking around identity.
That’s not actually what caught me off guard this time.
It was familiarity.
That surprised me.
Earlier that day, I was talking to a mom whose senior is graduating, and she said something about how strange it feels when a season ends.
And I had one of those weird internal pause moments.
Because even though my boys graduated years ago…
I stayed.
The school hallways stayed familiar.
The rhythms stayed familiar.
The people stayed familiar.
The casual conversations between meetings. The kids making me laugh. The coworkers who understand school life without explanation.
Even when my own family seasons shifted, this part remained steady.
And now?
That’s changing too.
I didn’t realize how much that mattered until I stood there holding wedding flowers and packing away pieces of a beautiful season and thought, oh.
That’s what this feeling is.
What I almost did next
Friday night.
Jason was out playing a gig.
My youngest was on a cruise.
My oldest was home with his wife.
It was just me and the dog.
And I sat.
Just… sat.
If you know Enneagram Nines, you probably already see where this is going.
When uncertainty rises, my natural instinct is often to go still.
Not always in a peaceful way.
More in a “stare at the wall while pretending I’m processing” kind of way.
Very sophisticated coping strategy.
But here’s what changed things.
The thing that got me unstuck wasn’t what I expected
Because of Working Genius, I know something important about myself.
Two of the things that energize me most are Invention and Discernment.
Ideas.
Possibility.
Thinking.
Planning.
Strategic clarity.
Which means the exact thing I was resisting might have been the exact thing that helped me move again.
That’s interesting, right?
Because we often assume feeling stuck means we need to stop.
Sometimes what we actually need is to reconnect with the kind of energy that brings us back to life.
So I prayed.
Asked God for clarity.
Grabbed my planner.
Pulled out my FLEX tools.
Started sketching ideas for what comes next.
Not because I had everything figured out.
Absolutely not.
But because movement returned.
If you’re in your own transition, try this
Before assuming you need more discipline, ask:
What usually drains me?
What actually energizes me?
When I feel uncertain, what is my default pattern?
What helps me re-engage?
That last question matters.
A lot.
Because the thing that energizes you may also be the thing that gets you moving again when you’re stuck.
Why I’m bringing this up now
This is exactly why Jason and I are hosting our Working Genius Workshop on June 16 from 7:00–9:00 PM Central.
Not because everyone needs another assessment.
But because self-awareness gets incredibly practical when life gets messy.
When you understand:
- what naturally gives you energy
- what quietly frustrates you
- where you create momentum best
- what causes unnecessary drag
…you stop trying to solve the wrong problem.
And because we want this to be genuinely useful, registration includes:
✔ the Working Genius assessment
✔ a 30-minute personal walkthrough of your results with me
✔ the live workshop experience
That assessment + walkthrough is a $40 value, included with the workshop.
One thing from my own results surprised me more than I expected, and I’ll probably talk about that live.
One small next step
If this email had you mentally nodding at least once…
take five minutes today and ask yourself:
What gives me energy when life feels uncertain?
And if you want help figuring that out, come join us in the workshop.
Talk soon,
Terrie
