On first day of the second half of the year 2025, a year that marks the quarter of a new century in a new millennium, I decided to celebrate.

It was not my birthday nor was it a reminder of a special event from the past, but because it marked the first day of a new phase of my life.

After decades of working full time, sometimes as an employee and for a while as a self-employed person, I finally took a leap into uncharted territory, a small step that I hope will lead to a new way of living.

Ok, enough with the clues, I know you are intrigued!

Doing less can be as stressful as doing more

I have started working part-time at my job from the first of July 2025.

What does that even mean?

It means I have managed to carve out a couple of days each week to create a sliver of space where new things can enter. Whether I choose to lounge around reading a book from start to finish in one go (something I used to do all the time as a child), or sign up for learning something new (gardening perhaps), or just sit and stare out the window, I have given myself permission to do so.

The greatest gift we can give ourselves when feeling stuck, is permission.

Permission to call for a time out, permission to let things be, permission to allow ideas to surface, permission to integrate whatever has happened.

For me, giving myself permission to do this, to voluntarily step down from the rat race that I had enrolled myself into way back in my youth, has been a big step.

I had fantasized about it, journalled about it and logically thought about it for at least five years. When I revisited my journal from 2020, I realised that by pushing down the desire to downshift each time it arose like a tiny bubble, I had just delayed the inevitable.

The heart wants what it wants. And when you get to the age I am, the body starts speaking louder as well.

Add to it external events, serendipitous encounters, deep discussions, and soon a cacophony of voices within you rises to a crescendo that cannot be denied.

I am so happy to write about this momentous day, which looked like any other day but felt so much lighter and brighter.

The inevitable question — what next?

What do I want to do now?

Honestly, I would like to plan less, be more spontaneous, chill, go with the flow, let the day unfold and follow all those euphemisms for doing nothing. But that’s not me.

I am a doer.

A goal-oriented person.

And the goal now is to be more harmonious, more coherent, more present.

So I plan to get on with my life with an uncharacteristic openness, not just to experiences but also by being open to sharing this journey.

I am not retired yet but I have coined a term for this phase of my life — “peri-retirement”.

Why “peri-retirement”?

Preparing for retirement

For those of you who are familiar with female menopause, you may be aware that the stage of “perimenopause” precedes the documented stage of menopause which marks a major transition in a woman’s life. Yet, perimenopause is a long drawn out phase that can start years before you can be termed “menopausal”.

It’s not just the duration, the experience itself is a combination of symptoms and feelings that are highly subjective, vary in frequency and intensity, don’t necessarily happen in any particular order and most importantly, it does not respond to any particular prescription of diet or actions or even medications. The experience is highly subjective.

Hence, ‘peri-retirement”, aka ‘preparing for retirement’, as a term for what I am stepping into seems apt.

But it is also a phase that gives me a sense of hope, of new beginnings, of starting on something that is not hidden in the shadows of must-do and must-have lists, there is no competition, no metrics and no targets. I like to think of this initial foray as stepping into “The Bright Side”.

Over on Substack, I plan to document my experiments as I prepare for retirment.

What can you expect from the Bright Side?

Cryptic or long-form observations, stories and insights from the days I have managed to snatch from the jaws of a working person’s life. The plan is to shine light on those missed moments that add meaning to our days.

While I haven’t set a schedule yet,, I will attempt to document my thoughts, feelings, experiments, escapades, attempts and epiphanies through this publication.

What else?

Here are some initial ideas that I hope to expand on:

1. Book sparks — I am always reading and most of what I read sparks a train of thought that sometimes complicates and at other times, presents solutions to my vexing problems. I will write about what I’m reading and perhaps write reviews or just share a quote or discussion that arose from it.
2. Bite-sized experiments — As a life-long learner, the pleasure I derive from learning something new gives me the best kind of endorphins. I hope I can share my hit and miss attempts at trying something new — recipes, exercise regimens, creative leaps and more.
3. Bittersweet nothings — If there is one constant in life, it is the ephemeral nature of things, precisely those things that are bittersweet, simply because that is the natural order of things. Whenever I am struck by an experience that is fleeting but beautiful and reminds me of this aspect of life, I hope to capture it.
4. Random encounters — Photos, quotes, short takes — think of it as a visual journal.
5. Casual conversations — I hate small talk, yet I am always up for one on one conversations, sometimes over coffee, or while walking. Occasionally these are serendipitous, or to my surprise, initiated by me. I always learn something from these interactions.

There may be other digressions as I become more comfortable with the phase, the place and the pace of the Bright Side.

There are no preconceived hypothesis or preset destinations on this journey.

Why Substack?

Because I am tired of posting into the void of social media to find my community, a small and engaged group is more attractive to me now. I plan to post podcasts, open subscriber chats and get into more community building activities on Substack.

So if this interests you, please join me as I figure out how to repurpose my remaining life.

I am sure it will be fun.