When you can see retirement coming, suddenly the rest feels real. House. Health. Work. How you'll spend time. Trying to redesign it all at once when you're sixty—you've lost the energy for that kind of shift. So some people practice in their fifties. Not a rehearsal. An experiment. Getting slowly used to what's coming.
The day you stop working doesn't ease in
One day you're on the clock, with structure. The next day it's gone. Morning commute gone. Lunch break gone. Regular meetings, all gone. You have to rebuild the shape of your own days. Do that starting from nothing at sixty and the shock takes most of your strength.