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Retirement: Another Graduation with Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons
From:
Dorian Mintzer, Ph.D.  BCC -- Retirement Expert Dorian Mintzer, Ph.D. BCC -- Retirement Expert
For Immediate Release:
Dateline: Boston, MA
Friday, April 17, 2026

 

This episode features retirement transition expert and former lawyer Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons, author of Encore: A High Achiever’s Guide to Thriving in Retirement, in conversation with host Dori Mintzer about how high achievers can rethink retirement as a creative “encore” rather than an ending. Elizabeth shares her own story of leaving Big Law, the contrasting retirement examples of her father and grandfather, and what she’s learned from 16 years of helping professionals design more intentional, energizing next chapters.?

Together they explore how to bridge identity beyond job titles, move from a life dominated by work to a richer “mosaic” of relationships, wellbeing, contribution, and play, and shift from reacting to others’ demands to actively creating your own structure, time use, and definition of fulfillment. Through stories of clients who rediscovered passions like jazz, community leadership, and even Broadway, Elizabeth illustrates practical tools—such as “shaking the snow globe” with reflective questions, experimenting instead of seeking instant mastery, and using annual and daily planning to align time with what matters most.?

Key ideas:

  • Retirement as another “graduation,” where you carry forward your enduring self rather than your business card.?
  • Shifting from a monolithic work-centered life to a flexible mosaic that includes health, relationships, learning, service, and joy.?
  • Moving from a reactor mindset (responding to others’ agendas) to a creator mindset (designing your own days, experiments, and projects).?
  • Using small, low-risk experiments to explore new interests and locations instead of needing a fully formed plan from day one.?

Connect with Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons

What to do next:

Dorian Mintzer, M.S.W., Ph.D., BCC (Board Certified Coach) is a coach, therapist, teacher, and writer with extensive clinical experience. She speaks to professional and community groups. As a coach, she helps women, men, and couples reinvent themselves in the second half of life. She is a co-founder of Certified Retirement Coaching 2.0., the host of Revolutionize Your Retirement Radio podcast, and the founder and host of a monthly webinar on the 4th Tuesday of each month: Revolutionize Your Retirement Interview with Experts Series for professionals and the public. She weaves adult development, holistic life planning, and positive psychology into programs that tap and shape clients' energies into roadmaps for wiser, more enhanced living.

She has written about many topics pertaining to the second half of life and aging. She is the author of Honoring the Art of Our Lives: An Interview with Alan C. O'Hare, co-author of The Couples Retirement Puzzle: 10 Must-Have Conversations for Creating An Amazing New Life Together, and has also contributed to Out Of The Box Retirement: Creative Ideas, Role Models, New Possibilities; Rightsourcing Retirement: Best Practices for Employers and Employees; Not Your Mother's Retirement; 70 Things to Do When You Turn 70; 80 Things to do When you Turn 80; Six Secrets For a Happy Retirement; 65 Things to Do When You Retire: Travel; Live Smart After 50!; 65 Things To Do When You Retire; Remarkable and Real; and Making Marriage a Success. She is also co-producer of The Career Playbook: Second Half Plays.

She's been featured in various media such as the WSJ, NY Times, USA Today, Washington Post, NPR, ABC Evening News, and the Today Show. She delivered a TEDx talk on "Embracing your Bonus Years: A Time to Grow, Learn and Evolve."

For more information on Dorian Mintzer, visit her website at https://www.revolutionizeretirement.com.

 

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Name: Dorian Mintzer
Title: Owner
Group: Revolutionize Retirement
Dateline: Boston, MA United States
Direct Phone: (617) 267-0585
Main Phone: (617) 267-0585
Cell Phone: 617 721-7800
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