Retirement is no vacation, and making the most of those golden years can prove more work than anticipated.

That’s according to Rotman professor of strategic management Anita McGahan, who helps older Canadians achieve their personal and professional ambitions in retirement through Rotman’s Distinguished Leadership Initiative.

McGahan explains that the very concept of retirement is filled with paradoxes, many of which are only discovered after transitioning out of the workforce.

Many spend their working years dreaming of all the things they will do once they’ve entered retirement, only to discover how difficult it is to translate those ambitions into their day-to-day reality.

“Suddenly you have a million things off your plate, you’ve got to disengage from work, and you did that with the intention of trying to reconstitute purpose in your life, but purpose doesn't come automatically,” McGahan says. “There's a lot of work you have to do to create that agenda and actualize that agenda in your world, and sometimes you’re not as good at that as you were at your prior job.”

With more Canadians spending more of their life in retirement, McGahan believes many are unprepared for the challenges that come with such a major life transition. Here is what she believes seniors can do to better prepare for their golden years.

Be prepared for a rocky transition

When most think of retirement they imagine travelling the world, spending time with family and working on big, important meaningful projects. But none of those things come naturally, or right away. Instead, many find the first days, weeks and months more isolating, intimidating and uncomfortable than anticipated.

“You need to give yourself permission to feel disoriented, you need to give yourself time to adjust, and you need to make a plan for how you're going to adjust,” McGahan says. “Get ready to work through disengaging and finding your next chapter.”

McGahan says the first year out of the workforce often proves the most challenging, as many are unprepared for that lifestyle change. After decades of having certain choices, priorities and schedules dictated by work and family responsibilities, many find themselves overwhelmed by the lack of structure that comes in retirement.

“It's worthwhile to think about the first year after you retire as a planning year,” she says. “It’s a year of discernment, a year of trying to figure out how to make an impact in a domain that you care about that capitalizes on your accumulated expertise and relationships, but that doesn't burn you out in the same way as the job you just quit.”

Look internally

Key to understanding how to make the most out of those retirement years is an honest assessment of your motivations, skills, abilities, personal and professional goals, and the limitations over things like your time, energy and abilities.

“Look internally at what you really did and didn't did like about your old job, thinking about what motivates you, and what kinds of patterns of behavior you want to shake off,” McGahan advises. “What kind of routine do you want? How many hours do you want to work? Do you want to work at home or go into an office? Do you want the summer off? How much travel do you want to do?”

These questions, McGahan says, often prove challenging to answer, as many are accustomed to having decisions made for them by their employers.

“I need to know what I want and why, and what I want to do with my time,” she says. “There's an opportunity to look at those systematically and carefully and legitimize them, but we're often not accustomed to legitimizing our own priorities.”

Look externally

Once you’ve established what kind of lifestyle you want in retirement, it’s time to look around for opportunities that enable you to enjoy that structure while pursuing your goals.

McGahan says that many people have a broad idea of what they want to work on — writing a book, starting a business, saving the environment, volunteering abroad — but struggle to connect those high-level ambitions with how they spend their time each day.

“Most of us go too broad — so how do I narrow this down to something that I can do in the time that I want to spend on accomplishing it?” she says. “What are the best fits with my desire for impact and my desire for flexibility, what specific opportunities are out there, and how am I going to choose among them?”

Be selective, and realistic

There are infinite ways to spend one’s retirement; the key to retiring well, according to McGahan, is to make choices that align with those internal needs and external opportunities.

“There are pieces that are under your control and pieces that aren't, so try to make great choices about the things that you can choose and don’t try to control things that are beyond your span of control,” she says. “That generally means getting narrower and more targeted and applying some criteria analytically to the opportunities in front of you.”

Finally, McGahan says it’s important to be realistic about what can be achieved in the productive years that remain while maintaining the kind of lifestyle you want to enjoy.

“Many of us [dream big]. We think, ‘When I retire I'll have the house at the beach or a big family. I'll be able to write a book,’ and neglect exactly how you're going to do that, and exactly how you want to structure your life; that’s an opportunity lost,” she says. “It's an incredibly vibrant opportunity for impact and satisfaction, so honour this time as the product of a lifetime of sacrifices and commitments.”

For leaders looking to plan their legacy, learn more about Rotman's Distinguished Leadership Initiative.