Never Stop Learning New Things

Retirement is the best time for learning.  You can learn at your own pace and pay attention to only the subjects that you like.  As you might have read in other articles on this website, I not only hated work, but I also hated school.  Hate is not too strong a word in either case.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like to learn.  I liked to learn about things that interested me.  If there was something I was interested in, I couldn’t get enough about the subject.  But why did I have to be in a classroom to do that?  I didn’t like the whole process of getting out of bed on cold mornings and getting on a school bus to listen to a teacher all day.  I liked learning and, even then, I knew you should never stop learning new things.  But why did I have to learn about the leaf structure of a plant or the body parts of a frog?  I had no interest in that.  Let me do some research into what caused the Second World War and then you had a student ready to stay up all hours of the night to find out.

Never stop learning new things - it makes life interesting!

I looked forward to retirement as a time for learning and I knew it could be done on my own terms.  There were many resources online and I had hundreds of books that I had collected over the years on my own favorite subjects.  Some of those subjects weren’t taught in school.  There was no course in the history of football or discussions about who was the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time.  I could argue my case and back it up with incredible statistics.  I even made my own baseball game that was actually pretty good.  I think becoming an expert in one or two areas of interest keeps life exciting and, when you can incorporate it with travel, you expand your leaning capabilities even more.  You should never stop learning new things and, as long as there’s no classroom or tests involved, you can expand your horizons that have previously not caught your interest.  My wife’s interest in gardening has gotten me to do some research on plants although I’m more interested in growing the best herbs and tomatoes rather than focusing on the structure of the plant itself.

When you can make learning a “hands on” affair, you really can make it fun.  We toured ancient Greece, and it was rather amusing to hear some of fellow travelers take note that they never thought hearing about Plato and Socrates could be interesting.  They were the subjects that put them to sleep during philosophy classes in college.  Now, they were walking the same area these two brilliant scholars walked thousands of years ago debating the same questions and problems we’re still dealing with today.  At dinner that evening it brought a smile to my face when I heard someone say that they didn’t think studying ancient Greece could be this much fun.  You should never stop learning new things and travel is one of the ways that can make any subject come alive.  Retirement lets you learn at your own pace and you’re the one who controls the subjects.  It doesn’t get better than that.

Retirement is also a time to try new hobbies and develop new passions.  Why not try to learn how to become a gourmet cook or a champion poker player.  You should stop learning new things or doing new things.  It makes a huge difference in your outlook on life.  People who are well traveled or well read can engage almost anyone in conversation and consider new perspectives on life.  That’s what makes retirement so interesting.  It can be an almost constant learning experience and there’s never homework or a test!  Even better, if you get bored of a subject, you can go onto something else.  I have that, quite often, a new topic or interest grabs me to the point that I’m reading everything I can get my hands on and then, all of a sudden, I’m done.  I’ve had enough.  Apparently, I had learned everything I needed to learn.  Once in a while I come back to a subject but not always.  What’s very interesting is how often a new subject that I’ve been investigating comes up in conversation and I’m very happy that I have at least a little background on the topic.

Retirement is a great time to continue your education process but, this time, in a fun way.  You should never stop learning new things and making that learning a part of your everyday activities is one of the best things you can do to keep your mind active.  It’s like earning another college degree in retirement without the classrooms, boring professors, term papers or final exams.  It doesn’t get better than that so go out there and start learning.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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