Keep Improving in Retirement

We work three or four decades, save as much money as we can and then, suddenly we’re free from the responsibility of going to work.  Does that mean life stops?  Of course not.  Does it mean we can do whatever we want to?  In a way it does but, if you want to a sense fulfillment and satisfaction during the golden years of your life, you should make an effort to keep improving in retirement.  Human beings are goal oriented by nature and if you face each day with a blank calendar and nothing on the list of things to do, you’re probably facing a rather mundane existence.  It’s one of the reasons I hear people say that they’re bored in retirement.  It bothers me when I hear that, and I started this website to help people chase the boredom out of their life.

I may be different than most people, but I look at life as an endless series of questions.  I can look at a map, find the remotest spot and start to research what it’s like there.  I can look at a list of things that happened on this day in history, the people who were born and died on this day and be off on a research journey that could easily last the whole day.  The world we live in is amazing and our history is better than any soap opera ever created.  I’ve made it my mission to keep improving in retirement.  Keep learning, keep traveling and try to make every day as enjoyable as possible.  As Mr. Lincoln once said, people are about as happy as they choose to be.  I make it a choice to be happy, and part of that choice is to try to keep improving in retirement.

Travel is one way to keep improving in retirement.

Our favorite activity is travel and it has become a true learning experience to visit places that are very different and see things that we’ve never seen before.  We have learned to develop a sense of appreciation for everything we see and encounter.  It’s been our experience that people everywhere want the same basic things.  They want to be safe with the ability to earn a living and raise a family.  They may have different ways of doing it, but even those differences are things to be appreciated.  We watched the city of Madrid close up in the afternoon and wondered why we couldn’t find a place to have dinner.  Then we saw the city come to life at 6 PM as all the families went out for an evening stroll and restaurants started to come to life serving foods that were very different from what we were used to but very, very good.  We realized that appreciating different customs and having those conversations was a way to get to know other people around the world.  It was something we had to develop but it has changed our whole outlook on travel.  It’s a very enjoyable way to keep improving in retirement.

There are many ways to make that improvement discipline a part of your life and bring added enjoyment to your retirement.  If you have a hobby or interest, why not approach it as you would if you were starting out in a new career?  My wife is part of a garden club and one of their lecturers was a retiree who decided to take up beekeeping.  The amount of knowledge that she gained in a short time surprised even her and the fact that she could turn it into a money-making proposition was an added bonus.  I think a lot more people could have a similar experience if they would just brainstorm the possibilities.  I had many thoughts about different careers and, when I talk to other people about that fact they usually share something similar.  They had thought about being an entertainer or writer or even a nurse.  It’s never too late.  One of the ways to keep improving in retirement is to take the time to learn about something new and, if it was a past interest, you might be surprised at how far you take it.  Even more surprising is how much enjoyment you’ll get out of it.  One thing I learned about life is that I didn’t enjoy the journey enough and I was determined to change that in retirement.  If you keep improving in retirement, you’ll learn that the process you’re undertaking can bring a deep sense of satisfaction.

You need to keep improving in retirement. Re-invent yourself.  If you’re not busy being born again in some way, you’re busy dying.  Get out and see the world.  Start a new hobby or a new career.  Write the next great American novel and then start to work on the sequel! Life is too short not to enjoy it fully.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

Thanks for visiting.  If you like what you see here, please tell your friends.

If you think it might be fun to start your own website (it is!) please look here.

If you’d like to learn about earning a steady online income, please check out this possibility.