Fight Off Boredom In Retirement

No one should be bored in retirement.  You will see that theme throughout this website.  With so many possibilities, I just don’t see how anyone can find themselves without some new interest or activity that will help you fight off boredom in retirement.  To get to this point in your life, you had to work decades and follow the orders of someone else every working day of your life.  I find it almost impossible that, during those endless days of work, you weren’t daydreaming of other things you could be doing.  To fight off boredom in retirement, at the very minimum, you should start doing all the things you would rather have been doing during your working days.

One of the things people don’t plan for is the amount of free time they will now have.  Between commuting back and forth to work plus full days where you could spend eight to ten hours (or more) at a job, plus any work that you might bring home, you’re looking at perhaps eighty or more hours that you will have to fill.  I couldn’t wait to have that problem because, as you may have found out through previous visits to this site, I didn’t like my job and there were many days where I absolutely hated my job.  In many ways I was a prisoner of Corporate America, held captive by an attractive salary that I used to support my family in the best way that I could.  I dreamed of the day when I could have my morning coffee in peace.  I couldn’t wait for the day when I would have no more meetings or conference calls.  No more employee reviews and no more business trips.  The only trips would be vacations and the only decision making that would be involved would be what to have for dinner.  I fantasized about all the things I would do and spent as much time planning how to keep busy as I did on making sure our finances were in order.  I was fortunate enough to have many interests and hobbies, so I knew my chances to fight off boredom in retirement were pretty good.  I am happy to say that everything worked out better than I thought.

You can fight off boredom in retirement by developing hobbies and interests.

I also knew that other people struggled.  I heard a number of my friends say that they never thought that they would get tired of golf and were thinking about getting a part-time job just to stay busy.  It was one of the reasons I started this website.  I feel sorry for someone with no hobbies and no interests to keep them busy.  How do you not have a curiosity to see this magnificent world that we live in or to learn about all the secrets of nature and the universe?  How do you not have the desire to learn something new like how to cook or how to build furniture?  We were put on this earth to explore the world and tap into the creative spirit that I believe everyone has inside them.  Take a leap of faith and start writing a novel or painting a landscape or even investing in stocks.  People spend a lifetime learning how to do any of those things.  Why can’t you learn a new skill that interests you instead of focusing on how bored you are?  That may sound harsh but it’s something I feel very passionate about. Fight off boredom in retirement by learning something new or visiting a place you’ve never been before.

One thing we have learned in retirement is to take the time to appreciate what you are experiencing.  There’s a treasure trove of learning in even the most mundane experiences that we sometimes take for granted.  For example, almost everyone makes bread, right?  But have you ever taken the time to learn how it is made and all the different forms of bread there are?  Bread is different from culture to culture and there is a world of difference between the bags of bread that we buy in our own country to the artisan breads of Europe, than naan breads of India and even the sourdough breads made popular on the west coast.  Watch and learn from a true baker at work and you realize how much more there is to this ancient staff of life.  That is true with almost any cuisine and food delicacy.  Learn the secrets of a smoked brisket or fresh pasta and you can become hooked on re-creating these wonderful dishes in your own kitchen.  Fight off boredom in retirement by cooking wonderful meals and visiting new places.  Learn about this wonderful world we live in.

I love history and learning about the different regions of the world and it seems that the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.  There are always more questions.  There are always new things to learn and places to explore.  Fight off boredom in retirement by learning something new every day.  Go out and see the world.  Try a new recipe.  Begin a new hobby.  Life is a gift that is meant to be enjoyed.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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