Quit at 45; 18 months later and I'd say I'm unhappy in different ways. Oh the joy of being me.
Don't regret leaving the job, but we moved to a small, isolated LCOL community where the options for being 'productive' are limited. Sure, I could find a bunch more volunteer stuff (doing some already), but nothing seems to appeal to my need to do something big and important. Maybe I'll get over this.
I've stopped calling myself "retired", partially because it feels smarmy among most of the people I associate with, and partially because I want to be open to the next phase of my life. "Retired" to me is an end-state.
I never considered myself a "type a" or ambitious really, but was always drawn to feeling like I was productive and doing something important, or serving something big.
Back to the original post and topic: I am starting to think about the traits that make somebody happy/successful in retirement, and I believe the number one thing is being self-motivated (which I'm not - I do things for others).
TL,DR:
- How are you going to spend your time?
- How do you know you will be fulfilled by whatever you're doing?
- What makes you happiest at work? How will you recreate that feeling in RE?
- Wherever you go, there you are.
BB.