However, on the other hand, the thought of grinding it out in your current job for at least another decade fills you with dread. Because your job doesn't give you the same fulfillment that it once did, and 10-15 years is an awfully long time to keep paying your dues and wait until you can truly start living, right?
                                                                                                                    
What's more — there's no guarantee you will even be able to retire, let alone live your dream, because life has a funny way of throwing us curved balls.
                                                                                                                    
It would be fantastic if you could retire right now (or, at the least, have the option available).
                                                                                                                    
If you didn't have to climb onto the treadmill every morning, and could give your time and energy to something that makes you feel alive again. But your finances won't allow it. At least not yet. You need to keep grinding.
                                                                                                                    
That is the dilemma: keep grinding, even though the retirement they promised you is starting to feel like pie in the sky; or retire too soon and go broke.
                                                                                                                    
Here's the thing, though:
                                                                                                                    
What if I were to tell you that this is actually a false dilemma?
                                                                                                                    
That it's based on a concept of "retirement" that is fundamentally flawed?
                                                                                                                    
That there's a much better way to transition into, and enjoy, the next chapter of your life — one that doesn't require you to build a massive nest egg to get started?
                                                                                                                    
Here are two things many folks learn about retirement the hard way:
                                                                                                                    
First, retirement is a lot more expensive than they expected. In fact, many folks find they have to keep working to enjoy the same lifestyle as before.
                                                                                                                    
Second, spending your days traveling the world and playing golf quickly starts to feel empty and meaningless. After "retiring" for a year or so, a lot of folks want to go back to work. They miss contributing to something bigger.
                                                                                                                    
Retirement as we know it is actually a modern concept.
                                                                                                                    
It was an economic experiment devised by Bismarck (the first chancellor of a unified Germany) back in the late 1800s. He needed to find jobs for the young and malcontent, lest they rebel against his government – so his government literally paid workers over the age of 70 to vacate their positions.
                                                                                                                    
While it scored them a short-term win, this idea of "retirement", arguably, created more social problems than it solved, and should probably have been consigned to the dustbin of history forever. Bismarck’s experiment had failed.
                                                                                                                    
In the Great Depression, however, barely more than one generation after Bismarck, FDR faced a similar problem: a mob of unemployed and malcontent young people who had nothing to get up for in the morning, and who would have brought the country to its knees through civil unrest.
                                                                                                                    
So, he resurrected Bismarck's retirement concept, because it looked like a clever way to solve the problem of the day. We have been stuck with it since.
                                                                                                                    
For almost all of history, professionals didn't really "retire".
                                                                                                                    
At least not in the way we now think about retirement.
                                                                                                                    
Sure, they might slow down as they got older, and they would probably step away from some of the more "hands-on" tasks that are really suited for young and less experienced professionals who are still learning the ropes. However, they would contribute their knowledge, experience, and wisdom.
                                                                                                                    
Bosses were eager to keep them as part of the team — even if "just" as an advisor, or an experienced hand who could mentor others.
                                                                                                                    
And this feels completely natural, right?
                                                                                                                    
Now, don't get me wrong. There are many folks who find the modern concept of retirement appealing, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
                                                                                                                    
However, most of the Daily Success Boost readers I've spoken with, or even coached — they don't want to spend the rest of their days playing golf.
                                                                                                                    
They just want to slow down.
                                                                                                                    
They just want to open their eyes every morning and know they have the freedom to spend their day doing something they enjoy, being around people they like and respect, contribute to something they truly believe in — while being able to balance that with other parts of their life that are important.
                                                                                                                    
And is that really too much to ask?
                                                                                                                    
It's not.
                                                                                                                    
In fact, this "retirement career" lifestyle that I just described is very much achievable. I know this because, over the last year or so, I've helped a small handful of my private coaching clients make this their daily reality.
                                                                                                                    
Over the next three days, I'm going to share three case studies with you.
                                                                                                                    
These are three people from very different professions, with very different personal and financial circumstances, who — by looking at their life and retirement prospects through a different lens — were able to escape the daily grind, open a new chapter of their lives, and live their retirement dream.
                                                                                           
Not "someday", but now.