Joyfully Retired

One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Thing

Author: Lee Kravitz

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2010

Genre: Inspirational Memoir

Source: Author/Publisher for TLC Book Tour

My Rating: B

Summary:

Lee Kravitz was many things: 54-years-old, an editor-in-chief at Parade Magazine, a work-aholic, a husband and father, and then one day he was suddenly unemployed. He had spent his whole life striving to achieve more and more.

In the weeks after he lost his job he had a hard time knowing what to do. Then one day he received thirteen boxes of mementos that had been in storage. In the boxes were various things he’d been saving his whole life. As he sorted through the boxes, he became aware of all the things in his life that were unfinished. He took the next year off to resolving all those issues.

My Thoughts:

Almost all of us have an event in our lives in which we find ourselves stopping and evaluating our own “unfinished business”. Those events could be a life-thretening illness, the loss of a spouse or a parent or a job. The smart ones take advantage of the evaluation and do something about it. We all have things we regret: friendships lost, people we haven’t thanked properly, poor decisions, debts unpaid, or other things we regret.

I thought Lee Kravitz did a good job of taking a serious, thorough look at his life. And then, he went on to do the difficult job of actually tackling those things. What he did takes courage. He not only took care of his unfinished business, but he learned from his mistakes.

I’ve read a few criticisms of Kravitz because he had enough money to take a whole year off to deal with his issues. I disagree. He could have put that severance money away in savings for retirement or his kid’s college or whatever else. He could have started his search for another job right away. He could have thrown himself right back into his work-aholic life style. Instead he stopped and not only took the time to examine and fix his life, but he took the time to share what he learned with the rest of us. He is to be applauded for that.

Lee Kravitz’s memoir is inspirational. I believe we are going to see more of this type of memoir in the future. As the great number of baby boomers retire and look back at their lives, they will add to the list of memoirs. They are an introspective group and I think they’ll take great pleasure in doing so.

This book would make an good book for group discussion. There are discussion questions in the back. You’ll also find a section called a Toolkit. This is a set of strategies for examining your own life and for making amends.

If this is something you are feeling the need to do, check out Unfinished Business by Lee Kravitz. Check you local library, your local bookstore, or Amazon. (I am an Amazon Associate.)

The author’s website: Lee Kravitz

The rest of the stops on the tour are here:  TLC Book Tours