Stop saying "retirement." It's making you miserable.

The word "retirement" started as a factory-era compromise. You worked for 45 years, then you sat down. Simple. Cruel.

We kept the word. We didn't keep the deal. The average 60-year-old today has three more decades of clarity, energy, and opinion. And we're still using a word that means "withdraw from active life."

Call it your Second Act. Call it your Next Move. Call it whatever you want. Just stop calling it retirement — because your brain, whether you like it or not, is listening.

The data on this is embarrassing. People who describe their post-work life with active language — "starting," "building," "learning" — report significantly higher life satisfaction than people who use passive words. It's not magic. It's that your language sets your calendar. Your calendar sets your life.

So here's the assignment. Pick a new word this week. Write it on a Post-it. Put it on your bathroom mirror. And every time someone at a dinner party asks what you're doing now that you're "retired," correct them. Politely. Firmly. Every time.

Because your Second Act isn't a departure. It's an entrance.