1st Edition
Radical Retirement The Reinvention of Self After Work
Foreword (Eileen Cunningham) Introduction: Radical Retirement: The Reinvention of Self After Work (Christine Eastman) Part 1: Education and Purpose 1. Lifting Our Heads and Appreciating the Beauty (Krista Court and Ruth McHugh) 2. Unsettled Waters: An Enquiry into Professional Identity, Self-Discovery, and Transformation (Jo Greenwood) 3. Shapeshifting (Sandra Booth) 4. Becoming Lost to Find Yourself: Walden and Rediscovering True Potential (Rachel O’Donoghue) Part II: A New Mission 5. The Shock of Contentment (Ian Helps) 6. Immortality Project (David Pyle) 7. Reinventing Professional Identities: Attention and Crisis (Kevin Kelley and Darragh Power) 8. The Courage to Become (Louise Sutton and Geraldine Locke) 9. I Will Never Retire (Cathy Ward) Part III: The Stories We Tell Ourselves 10. I Will Live in the Past, the Present, and the Future! Scrooge and the Possibility of Redemptive Transformation (Yael Maurer Eliav) 11. Layoffs to Livestock: Retirement as the New Chapter of Reinvention (Matthew Pritchard) 12. The Stories We Tell Ourselves: A Table of Bricolage (Dawne Gurbutt) 13. What isn’t your CV telling me? (Dan Biggs) 14. Reinventions in a Changing World: Personal and Poetic Reflections (Bill Jones) Conclusion: Reinvention Perspectives for Career and Beyond (Kath Houston)
Biography
Christine Eastman is a qualified coach, with unique experience in facilitating professionals’ transition from manager to leader. She is also Senior Lecturer in the Business School at Middlesex University and Teaching Fellow in the Management School at Lancaster University, and a multiple book author.
Kath Houston is a career coach, book author, and a university teaching fellow and researcher. She has investigated career decision-making tipping points and how to prompt a career epiphany.
“This work represents a collective body of wisdom for the ages. Radical Retirement brings together a constellation of messengers who weave together a rare and wonderful communication of true insight and hindsight that is unparalleled. The guidance and clarity become true gifts for us all relating to this critical period in our lives that can determine our destiny. The depth, honesty and relevance of this work cannot be overstated.”
Dr Philip Styrlund, CEO – The Summit Group
"Retirement has long been sold as freedom - the time to rest, travel, and enjoy life. Yet for many, it becomes another pressure point: a constructed finish line that too often leads to disorientation rather than fulfilment. Radical Retirement: The Reinvention of Self After Work challenges that illusion with clarity and compassion, showing that retirement is not an ending but a continuation of becoming.
It is a book about courage - the courage to rediscover purpose, agency, and a renewed sense of self in a complex, often messy world still tethered to outdated models of success. A timely and hopeful guide for anyone ready to live the next chapter with curiosity and confidence."
Dr Jeremy Chapman, The Integrity Centre
"'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes' a statement that serves as a truism for two inevitable aspects of our very existence. However, don’t we all hope that we get a chance to retire from work but not from life? This work is conceptually rich. Each chapter is layered with symbolic meanings, reflections and idioms that provide practical advice and application too. Having a ‘to-be’ list reads like sound advice to me."
Dr Mandy Crawford-Lee, CEO – University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC)
"Radical Retirement shines a light on what so many people quietly struggle with: the emotional, psychological and identity shift that comes when work falls away. In financial planning, we see the same truth every day — money alone doesn’t deliver purpose. This essential book gives people the language, structure, and confidence to build a life they can actually look forward to, not just afford. A must read!"
Chris Broome FPFS, Chartered Financial Planner, Longhurst
