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George Jerjian: The original Retirement Rebel

02 Apr 2021 | Written by George Jerjian

Retirement Rebel - blog by George Jerjian for The Joy Club

In this blog, George Jerjian – mindset mentor, coach and author – shares his journey to becoming a ‘Retirement Rebel’ and tells us why his passion and purpose is to inspire people entering retirement to do the same.


I can clearly remember the moment I realised that retirement wasn’t something that I ‘had to do’. It was liberating to say the least!

Like most of us, I’d been led to believe that it was the only option. I’d accepted it as the path I would take, and I didn’t question it. That all changed when I became semi-retired at the age of 52, after being diagnosed with a bone tumour. 

The ‘honeymoon period’ lasted about a year. All that freedom! But then I felt like my life was starting to slow down. Time dragged, and I ceased to flourish, both mentally and physically. And that’s when I realised the idea that retirement is good for us might just be a myth. So, I decided to investigate further.

I did some research and discovered there are actually three myths about retirement that I believed – and that you might too. The first is that retirement was created for the greater good of individuals. It turns out that the first pensions were actually introduced by Caesar Augustus to secure the loyalty of the Imperial Roman army, then used by governments for social control, and later by corporates as a tool to lock in employees.

The second myth is that in retirement, you’ll have enough money. This is also untrue. When you retire at 65, you could go on to live another 30 years. How will you fund retirement? And finally, probably the most important myth to bust is that retirement will make you happy and healthy. The statistics actually reveal a significant increase in depression, illness, loneliness and social disengagement in retirement.

Using my own experiences, and my research, I created the D.A.R.E. Method, which is the basis of my 8-module online program Dare to Discover Your Purpose. The method was my way of helping people to do what I had done: find out that there is a new path you can take, however close you are to retirement age – and even if you’ve reached it already.

The four steps of D.A.R.E. are Discover, Assimilate, Rewire, and Expand. The method requires you to summon courage to emerge from your comfort zone of retirement to embark on a new journey. It will give you the knowledge, the psychology, the strategy and the tools you need to make positive changes. Here’s what each step entails:

Discover what retirement is and what it’s definitely not

By putting retirement in perspective, and by taking off our rose-tinted spectacles and stopping the delusion that retirement is a wonderful place to be, we can then understand that this is life’s last call to discover and implement our purpose and our legacy, before the final curtain comes down.

Assimilate a new understanding of your mind

By assimilating this new understanding of how our mind works, we can change our present by creating new thoughts. And as we are emotional addicts, we can replace our past memories by imagining a new future, a new purpose, a new life.

Rewire your beliefs by learning how to use your subconscious mind

We can rewire our minds by envisioning. This uses our visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic senses, so as to create a new software program in our minds to replace the old one, and thereby impressing on our minds our new future, our new purpose, our new life.

Expand your horizons by manifesting your future now

By believing and manifesting that we have already received what it is that we want, our mind cannot reject that reality. There’s never been a more important stage in your life to use this power. The future you want is yours for the taking!

I followed these steps and now, in my mid-sixties, I can honestly say that I live with more purpose and passion than I thought possible. So, whether you are close to retirement age, or a while off, take time to think about how you plan to live in later life, because, as Cicero said, “Old age is the crown of life, our play’s last act.”


You can find out more about George on his website and sign up to one of his online courses here.