Hmmm....
Y'know, I've met a few hundred self-made wealthy people over the years. Mostly tech founders, angel investors and
real estate investors. Lots of small business owners, but they rarely become financially independent. Wrong mindset. A hefty chunk of the people with real money (the "I don't have to work another day and can do anything I want" kind) went through one or periods of their life afterwards similar to what you're describing. They were just kind of adrift without any real purpose.
That's when I started hearing more about things like seller remorse, life purpose,
gratitude, service, philanthropy, etc. People who are successful early in life are typically incapable of sitting around doing nothing for long periods. It's the reason they were able to become successful in the first place. That energy has to go into something meaningful to them.
I spent about three years semi-retired, doing not so much and largely bored out of my mind. There's only so many times you can walk the dogs, only so many books you can possibly read, only so many shows you can watch. The next five decades were starting to seem more than a little depressing. I'd catch myself thinking "Wow, I spent twenty plus years to get here and that's it?!? This is rest of my life?!?" It was hardly the Zen lifestyle I'd been aiming for.
Zero
gratitude. Zero helping anyone outside the family. Little interaction with other people. Nada.
One morning, I woke up and just couldn't take it anymore and decided to fix it. That took awhile since I really didn't understand the underlying causes, but treated it like everything else in my life. A bunch of problems that could be fixed with research and
effort. We spent three months traveling around New Zealand. That was a great start and a huge amount of fun and I learned how to paraglide, but getting home afterwards made things even more depressing since I didn't want to live there anymore. The problem was I didn't know exactly where I did want to live either.
So I just kept doing new things. I learned to play piano. I found a Master Mind buddy. I learned about different online business models. We kept traveling and taking extended trips around the US for three years. All of that was *way* more fun and we decided to keep doing it. Rented our home and spent the past 18 months living in different parts of the country doing a bunch of different things in each area. Basically just exploring the world again. I decided to sell my software company. We found our new favorite place to live for the next few years, started a business in an industry I know nothing about and learned how to be sincerely thankful for everything we have.
It was really difficult at first and then became really easy. It's not like I'd completely been brain wiped and forgotten everything I used to enjoy doing. I'd just stopped doing new things, learning and growing. Being uncomfortable is a critical element to forcing change on yourself that usually gets lost with age. There's a great children's book called "Oh, The Places You'll Go" that summarizes it perfectly. I read through it every few years. Regrettably, no one can pull you out of the Waiting Place except you.