Excellent advice from Glenda. In particular, her recommendation to phase gently into it by going part-time for a few years. You may find it suits you so well that you stay semi-retired for 10 years or more. I was semi-retired for about 5 or 6 years and there is a lot to recommend it.

Don't retire from. Retire to. If you are retiring because you don't want to work anymore - bad idea. If you are retiring because you want to play more golf or take up woodcarving, or grow the best roses in the street, or travel with your camera - good idea. Retire because you want to do something.

Have a clear idea of what it is you want to do. Once retired you are completely your own master, can do exactly as you like, when you like. You are not constrained by having to go to the office every Monday. There is nothing to regulate and order your week. One day is the same as any other day. There are two dangers here.

One is obvious: not having enough in the way of goals. Beware just sitting around and doing nothing in particular. That's a good way to an unmemorable life and an early death. People who retire and just stop doing stuff usually drop dead. But you know that.

The other is less obvious: having too many goals. This is the one I am struggling with: there are so many things I want to do that I divide my time between too many of them and don't achieve a lot of progress on any one of them and wind up feeling frustrated and discouraged, which leads to a bit of sitting around doing nothing. I can think of at least 20 (yes, honestly at least 20) things I want to do, and they are all good, sensible things or memorable fun things, and most of them are sensible and fun. But I really need to get better at picking one and sticking to it, even if only for a week at a time, rather than floating around like a butterfly doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Back when I was working, this wasn't an issue: my customers decided what I would do every working day (by placing orders for this thing or another thing), and because non-working days were rare and precious, I usually had them "pre-booked" with things I wanted to do. Now that there is so much choice, it's not so simple.

I'll stop talking now and go and sit out the back with a cup of tea enjoying the rosellas enjoying the sunflowers, and decide which of about 7 things I will do today. With any luck, it will be a tough decision and I'll need a second cuppa before it's made.