If you are about to retire or have recently retired, there's a brilliant book that you need to read called So What do we do Now?; The Babyboomers Guide to Enjoying Retirement.
It's written by Eva Bennett, a motivational trainer, and draws on her own experiences of how she adapted to her husband's retirement which involved moving to a seaside town.
Bennett ranks the impact of this life-changing experience right up there with childbirth, yet while we had the benefit of antenatal classes and new mothers' groups, there's very little available for impending retirees or the newly retired.
While most of us say we can't wait for retirement to be able to do all the things we've always wanted to do, the problem is how to fill in the thirty years or so after retirement, especially as we are living longer.
Retiring from work doesn't mean retiring from life.
According to a recent survey in North America, 40% of recent retirees said they were happier when they were working because they felt they had a purpose and structure to their days.
Retirement isn't always what people expect and many ask "So what do we do now?" There's an increasing trend for people not to retire outright, but to start working less.
Research has shown that retirees who cease to contribute and to be productive and active, die earlier than those who continue to engage fully in society.
According to Bennett, the beginning stages of retirement and like a honeymoon period.
You don't have to get up to go to work, you can play golf or go fishing whenever you like and don't have to work to deadlines.
But the euphoria and the novelty soon wear off -after all, there are only so many lattes a week you can drink and only so many times a week you can go fishing.
Then what? Life can get boring.
We need to re-evaluate who we are and what we want out of life because our former identity is no longer relevant.
There are three stages to the transition from old to new - Endings (where we let go of the past), The Neutral Zone (where we review the past and reflect on what we want to do now) and New Beginnings (where we decide what we need to change or do differently).
As you create the new you, its important to keep all aspects of your life in balance, that is your finances, home life, health, relationships, leisure time and your purpose in life.
One of the secrets of a healthy, active and happy life is to feel young psychologically.
I remember when I was in my twenties going to a motivational seminar for women and being asked to plan my life and set goals up to the age of 150.
The reason for that, explained the facilitator, was that people who planned to live to 90 usually started to wind down from age 60, so if you planned to age 150 you would exit at your peak! It's never too late to find your passion and start living it.
The so-called Third Age is the time to give back to the community and share your knowledge and wisdom.
Being positive is an important part of enjoying your retirement and contributes to living longer.
Some people enter retirement filled with negative thoughts and fears of ill health and lack of money.
The key to happiness is to be happy with whatever you have and to be thankful for whatever is good in your life.