No matter how thoroughly you prepared financially for your new life passage to retirement, do you now find yourself temporarily teetering on a precarious high wire of new-found freedom and personal exploration? Have you asked yourself why? Certainly this is what you have waited for all those years of your career. So why does it already feel so lifeless?
In the early weeks after your retirement party, after your commute ended and you suddenly found yourself with all the time in the world, and experienced the giddy mischief of doing whatever you pleased, whenever you pleased, the novelty of the situation carried you along. But then the day comes when you look up from the 200th book you’ve read end on end… or the 5th golf game you’ve played this week… or the final item on your fix it list… and the question of the rest of your life looms.
Been There Too
I know all this because I have been there too…
The truth of this ennui about the rest of your life is that you are in uncharted territory…
SO now who will tell you what to do? Who will come up with your “what happens next?”…
When you began your career three or four decades ago as a young worker, you may have, either freely, or out of necessity, taken a job that, to a large degree defined you. What you did, when you did it, and to what degree work dominated your days, were factors beyond your control.
So Now What
Now you’re at that enviable point in your life when you have much more autonomy. You want to determine for yourself who you are, what you will do, when you will do ‘it’, and how ‘it’ will align with other facets of your newly-acquired life style.
So now the puzzling begins. If I need to design my own life and pursuits and purpose, what will I choose. And how will I choose it?
What If You Want More?
While you may not be interested in a future dedicated entirely to relaxation, you probably do want more balance and control in designing your unique ‘work versus relaxation’ formula. And you likely what to continue to learn. You want to stay engaged and to feel worthwhile… to achieve and contribute.
As a matter of fact, you probably have an aversion to the prospect of having nothing to do, nothing to challenge you, nothing to learn. You may know that you do not want to work as much you did before — too many hours, too much time away from home and family, too much all-out expenditure of mental and physical energy.
And more, you may not want to work at the same type of job you held during your previous lifetime career — too much compromise, too much outside control and too little self-control. It’s time, you say, for more balance and more freedom, less stress and less constraint.
In a word, …
Take heart
In future conversations we’ll examine in detail the various life-style configurations and options you’re free to pursue, and the multiple combinations thereof. We’ll talk about the how’s and what’s of the leisure/work combination.
