Retirement means more time with Bettina.

“Well, the day had finally come, this time last year I left my post with HQ 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team and formally retired.

I had a 24-year career with the Army followed by a second career in social care, supporting adults with a learning disability which lasted for 28 years. The highlight was 15 years as the Managing Director of Dosh (Financial Advocacy) Ltd www.dosh.org  

In 2024 I had the opportunity of returning to the Army where I got to work with some amazing people. I am one lucky chap.

HQ 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team. From work coffee mug to gardening coffee mug

My motivation for retirement was Bettina aka ‘B,’ having a seizure and I was not there to help ‘B’ and support Joyce, my wife. As much as I enjoyed working with my military colleagues and being part of something special, I wanted to be there for Bettina’s next seizure.

What Retirement looks like for me, or one thing leads to another?

  • Stepping up and taking some of the load from Joyce with our caring responsibilities for Bettina and the housework. It is super important to me that Joyce feels the benefits of retirement too. My retirement present from Joyce was a new hoover, and this was my surprise Christmas present from Joyce:
  • Running 4 x sessions a week. My long-term goal this year, is to be the fastest 70-year-old in Colchester over 5KM.
  • Writing articles on www.leadershipintheraw.org  weekly leadership & wellbeing newsletters and a monthly leadership publication which I share with my network, and on social media platforms (which Joyce regularly tells me I spend far too much time on!).  The blog has 355 articles and has had 54,000+ views from around the world (23rd February 2026)
  • Weekly day out with Joyce, tomorrow is Frinton on sea (Essex, UK).
  • “Gregging it” is now a thing! Coffee at Greggs (the best thing to come out of Newcastle). It happens every morning before we do our shopping.

Related:   https://leadershipintheraw.org/2024/06/14/one-thing-led-to-another/  

Still Contributing and Making a Difference

Retiring does not mean you need to give up ‘work.’  I have found you can still have influence, and you can still contribute:    

  • Coaching and Mentoring. I feel honoured to be asked to coach and or mentor former colleagues. It is an opportunity to support people who went the extra mile for me during my careers.
  • Sharing knowledge and experiences I enjoy writing articles about Leadership and the lessons in life I have learned from my youngest daughter Bettina (‘Being Bettina’s Dad series) on my blog.  Here is one I wrote recently: https://leadershipintheraw.org/2025/11/24/being-bettinas-dad-support-through-change/
  • Having a social media presence. This involvement is on a wide range of social media platforms, it enables me to maintain relationships with my previous professional networks, opportunities to promote the organisations I worked for, so more people know about the difference they make and keep up to date with important topics I am interested in within Social Care, Defence and Leadership. 
  • Contributing and making a difference. Early on in my retirement I was invited to meet local authority commissioners. They were planning to introduce a new day service for people with disabilities. I was able to contribute with my experiences as both a parent carer and my previous involvement in ‘community support’ for people with a learning disability. I was flattered to be asked.

Related:  https://leadershipintheraw.org/2024/06/14/one-thing-led-to-another/

My top five retirement take aways:

1. Prepare and Plan not just for now but in the future. I went into retirement with a plan that had aims and objectives. I also set five weekly objectives I want to achieve by the end of each week. They keep me focused and I enjoy the sense of achievement when I have met those priorities.

Related:  https://leadershipintheraw.org/2024/12/20/setting-goals-objectives-commitments/

2. Routines and Rituals. What a routine means to me? It stops me from going into ‘free fall’ (feeling that I do not have control) and it stops me from drifting aimlessly throughout my day. How often do we say there are not enough hours in the day to get stuff done? Over time our routines refine and improve our life efficiencies. More on this take away in:  https://leadershipintheraw.org/2024/10/27/the-importance-of-routine/  Set new rituals,  did I mention ‘Gregging It? And on the 28th of each month Joyce and I have a ‘date lunch’ to celebrate retirement, we call it ‘Endex’ (a nod to my army career).

Date lunch with Joyce.

3. Eliminate waste. Now is a suitable time to self-audit. Over time you will have built up a lot of stuff in your home that you no longer need or use. With the additional free time, this is an opportunity to ‘get rid.’  The sense of freedom this feels is worth the effort. 15 minutes a day I do shredding and fortnightly we do a skip run. 

4. Fit and A Healthy Diet. Maintaining your fitness and health could be the best investment you can make for yourself and those who are significant in your life. It will help you be more and do more. It is never too late to start. This is an area of my life I try to constantly improve on.  Although I know I will never be able to give up chocolate. 

5. A youthful mindset. My father and his generation felt they should fit a societal norm for older people whether it was their outlook on life or even how they dressed. This is no longer the case; you can continue to stay relevant whether you have retired or not. My mantras continue to be ‘look smart – feel smart’ & ‘look the part – feel the part.’  So yes, I am going to continue to buy my clothes from ‘Fatface’ and ‘Crew Clothing.’ (Joyce gave me a ‘Fatface’ voucher for Valentines Day and I can’t wait to spend it)

Top Tip: ‘Old’ is 15 years after whatever my current age is. 

And if you are not ready for retirement yet and instead you wish to change careers as I did from the Army to Social Care then my personal tips may help you too:  https://leadershipintheraw.org/2018/07/20/transitioning-from-one-career-or-job-to-another/

Source:  Steve Raw www.leadershipintheraw.org