extra hours
If you’re anything like me, you’ll also realize that 9 hours, or whatever your average workday entailed, can be swallowed up by all kinds of things that weren’t a part of your original plan or vision.
Improvement is a common theme. We want to improve our minds and bodies. We want to strengthen relationships. We may want to better our immediate surroundings with home improvement projects or improve the communities in which we live.
You’ll want to branch out and broaden your horizons by doing new and different things, and these are some broad categories of activities that may be helpful in bringing you purpose and happiness in retirement.
Do something creative. Build things. Write stuff. Make music.
Recreational activities can be as informal as a pledge to move your body more or as formal as a detailed cross-training plan to help you complete your first triathon.
Some people need a livelier social life than others, but we all benefit from at least some face to face interaction with our peers. That’s something most of us had in our working years, and loneliness can be a challenge for those who got most of their social interactions at work.
Volunteering can be a wonderful way to replace the sense of purpose you may have found in your previous career. When money’s not a factor, it’s pretty easy to find “work” that impacts your neighbors and your community in positive ways.
Take long hikes, bike around, and shop at stores you’ve never stopped at before. Go to your neighboring towns’ summer festivals; check out the farmers’ markets and flea markets. Visit local wineries, distilleries, meaderies, and breweries, if that’s your thing. It is my thing.
Read a biography. Help your neighbor install that new thing she got. Take piano lessons or study Swahili. You don’t get to use your business or your busy-ness as an excuse not to learn new things anymore. That’s both a blessing and a curse, but mostly a blessing.
You’re allowed to be a little bit lazy when you feel like it. There will be time tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that to pick up where you left off with whatever it is that you’ve found to occupy your time.