Identity.
Meet
Recreation.
When your career comes to an end, it feels like your identity disappears with it. What’s really changed is the pursuit. Start a new pursuit with handpicked recreational experiences that speak to your identity.
Everything that built the "world" around our job: the title, the routine, the people, and most importantly, something worth pursuing. All of it. Gone.
Recreation makes it easier to cross a bridge—from struggling with identity loss in your professional life to pursuing your next great peak in your personal life.
Disappearing act
As long as I can remember, I have been struggling with identity loss. Every time I moved from one country to another with my parents, since I was 3 years old, it felt like I had to learn how to adapt quickly: adopting a new identity while still grieving the one I had just lost.
As I got older, it showed up differently: leaving a job. I was burnt out. Like the photograph of Marty McFly and his siblings in my favorite movie Back to the Future, it felt as though I was slowly being erased. I was becoming invisible. After climbing the career ladder for 20 years, a new journey to make sense of how I viewed myself began.
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Years passed. I didn’t turn into a thought leader or someone who has it all figured out. I am a person who enjoys sharing what I research while learning from conversations with people that had transitioned into a new life stage that impacted their identity.
What have I learned from them so far?
When the career that defined you ends, it feels like your identity disappears. What’s really changed is the pursuit.
What I also learned is the 'how': Recreation. With every recreational experience, retirees struggle less and less with identity loss. It enables them to pursue mastery, community, and purpose — strengthening their personal identity.
I hope you find this website useful. Let recreation help you live a meaningful life on this big blue marble we call Earth.
Andre
3 questions for you
Your Next
Great Peak
Don't you wait for the feeling to pass. It will only pass if you step out of it and pursue something new. Recreation can be the bridge — a way to explore or deepen what still feels like you, on the way to your next great peak.
Centered on 5 main recreational identity types, travel locally or globally to handpicked recreational experiences: spaces you can step into, clubs you can join, and trips you can go on.
5 Types To Explore:
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![A Leica M6 film camera with a black body, a large lens in the center, and various buttons and dials, isolated on a white background.]()
1. Creative & Artistic
Experiences where you make, build, or express something creative or artistic.
Example: Photography (Leica® Society International)
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![Close-up of green binoculars with black accents on a white background]()
2. Nature & Leisure
Experiences that connect you with the nature or leisure in a passive way.
Example: Birdwatching (Swarovski Optik® Activities)
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![A navy blue cycling jacket with a front zipper, pink and gray horizontal stripes, and the letters "RCC" and the brand name "Rapha" on it.]()
3. Outdoor Sports
Experiences focused on athletic competition, skill, or fitness that take place outdoors.
Example: Cycling (Rapha® Cycling Club)
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![An indoor rowing machine with a black seat, gray frame, and a large air resistance flywheel. The machine is labeled "concept 2 DYNAMIC INDOOR ROWER" in yellow and white text.]()
4. Indoor Sports
Experiences focused on athletic competition, skill, or fitness that take place indoors.
Example: Indoor Rowing (Concept2® Rowing Events)
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![Decorative trophy with two gold seahorses intertwined around a green seaweed-like structure on a clear base.]()
5. Collecting
Experiences focused on finding, curating, and organizing specific items of interest.
Example: Crystal Figurine Collecting (Swarovski® Manufaktur Tour Experience)
Table Tennis
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Hunting
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Running
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Model Building
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Badminton
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F1 Racing
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Stargazing
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Gardening
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Table Tennis • Hunting • Running • Model Building • Badminton • F1 Racing • Stargazing • Gardening •
Other
Examples:
What comes with identity loss?
Becoming irrelevant to the world around me. Losing my friends and my network. Being bored out of my mind. Having nothing interesting left to talk about. Becoming a burden to others. Fearing my best years are entirely behind me. Waking up with no reason to get out of bed. Losing the physical ability to do what I love. Staring at an empty calendar.
How To Get Started
Join as a founding subscriber for $195/year and start your next pursuit.
Recreational Experiences
$195.00
USD. Billed Annually.
(Equal to $16.25 per month)
Founding Subscriber Offer
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Founding Subscriber Offer •
What is included:
Recreation Passport
—Like being given a reason to get on a plane.
Get early access and go deeper than what is briefly featured on every recreational space, club, or trip on the Inside Spaces podcast. More detail, more context, more reasons to travel. A collection of “passport pages” that grows every single week.
Seasonal Itinerary
—Like a ready-made trip planner.
At the end of every season, from spring to winter, we pull together the best upcoming recreational trips into a handpicked itinerary. A new season to explore, four times a year.
Travel Notes
—Like a journal of your recreational experiences.
For every handpicked experience we feature, you can add your own notes and mark them as visited. A growing record of where recreation has taken you, with a personal recap sent to your email every year.
Inside
Spaces
Our weekly podcast. Listen to host Andre Brathwaite share a 15 min. travel note, a handpicked recreational experience, a space, club, or trip every week to explore or deepen something you can look forward to pursuing.
Featured this week:
Get our newsletter with a fresh episode. Every Sunday.
How To
Contact Us
The best way to contact us:
Frequently Asked Questions
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Forms of Recreation is guide to handpicked recreational experiences worth pursuing: spaces, clubs, and trips that speak to your identity.
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A term coined by Forms of Recreation, an identity bridge is a transition from identity loss to the next great peak. Using recreation is a great way for retirees to explore or deepen something they look forward to pursuing: strengthening their personal identity.
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When the career that defined you ends, you often face a profound loss of identity. Recreational experiences, such as spaces to step into, clubs to join, and trips to go on, serve as an identity bridge, allowing you to pursue personal interests and passions that reinforce — rather than erase — who you are.
Listen to André Brathwaite, podcast host of Inside Spaces by Forms of Recreation, share his notes on a country travelers can visit and experience what it has to offer. In Part 2, he shares some of the different recreational experiences one can choose to do in Barbados.