Retired And Enjoying Life

After forty years of working in Corporate America, I am finally retired and enjoying life.  I never take for granted this wonderful feeling of complete freedom.  There are no meetings, no conference calls, no projects and no deadlines.  I have my morning coffee in peace and absolutely love the fact that no one tells me what to do or how to do it.  I love having nothing on my calendar unless I put it there.  It amazes me when I meet someone who says that they miss working or they’re bored in retirement.  It’s one of the reasons I started this website and, after six years, still enjoy writing about my favorite subject: the complete freedom that retirement gives you.

I suspect that people who complain about retirement because there isn’t enough to do didn’t really anticipate the transition that occurs when you suddenly have forty, fifty or more hours to fill because you no longer have a job to go to.  They got so used to being told what to do they don’t know how to “self-start” their way into a productive use of their time.  Many people fail to realize that even retirement has to have a purpose.  You can’t just spend every day on a golf course with no goals to strive for.  I know many people who enjoy golf but those who enjoy it the most have a circle of friends to play with and friendly competitions among themselves.  There are tournaments they participate in and different courses that they go to.  But they all have something else in their life as well.  Those who are retired and enjoying life to the fullest are usually people with multiple interests and hobbies.  Golf might be one of those interests, but there are usually other pastimes that they look forward to.  You need to develop other interests.

It's always good to hear someone say that they're retired and enjoying life to the fullest.

While this website is filled with suggestions on how you might spend your day, only you can make those decisions and that brings us to one of the secrets I believe lead to a happy retirement.  In my opinion most people don’t know themselves as well as they think they do.  I think everyone has a hidden desire that never came to fruition during their working career.  Every kid has some kind of fantasy about what they want to be when they grow up and, indeed, some are able to achieve those dreams through hard work, talent and good fortune.  But many people aren’t as fortunate, and they let their fantasies fade.  I think retirement is a time to bring those dreams back to life.  It’s a second chance to do anything you want.  It’s true that you may have to make certain adjustments to those hidden ambitions but it’s amazing how much enjoyment you’ll get from rekindling those long-lost flights of fancy. While your chances of playing second base for your favorite baseball team may be non-existent, you can get those competitive juices flowing again in a league for seniors and have a ball doing it.  A friend of ours drove in the winning run in a game last year and has been talking about it ever since.  He went from a bored Army veteran to someone who is retired and enjoying life to the fullest.  All he did was to take a step towards a dream.

Everyone has dreams in their life but, sadly, many people let them fade away.  The fact is that even though your working career did not match your vision, it doesn’t mean that your retirement can’t make up for it.  I was fairly successful during my working career, but the job had almost no satisfaction for me and the projects I worked on meant a lot to the company but didn’t make me as excited as some of the dreams I had when I was younger.  I had dreams of traveling the world, writing a best-selling novel and watching it being made into a blockbuster movie.  I remember reading a few of Irving Wallace’s novels and fantasizing about traveling to the places he wrote about like Amsterdam, London, Paris and Berlin.  Could I ever get there?  I’m happy to say that I did make it to all of those places and more and, although that novel hasn’t quite materialized, it’s something that still brings a smile to my face.  This website has been a wonderful outlet for my writing ambitions and, although it will probably never be made into a movie, it has given me much enjoyment and an income I never expected.  Starting a website is an activity many retirees have undertaken as a surrogate for their dreams of the past.  Many have written about their hobby, passion or other interests and made money doing.  Instead of fading into the background, they have taken a proactive step and set up a new challenge for themselves.  They’re retired and enjoying life to the fullest.

Why not consider a new challenge for your own life?  If you find yourself spending too much time in front of the television or just sitting around with nothing to do, why not find a new interest to pursue.  It doesn’t have to be a website of course, but I wouldn’t dismiss that possibility too quickly.  You don’t have to be a technological wizard anymore to create your own presence on the internet.  The bottom line is to add a little variety to your life with something that is creative and a little bit of a challenge.  Many retirees take up painting or crafts.  Knitting scarves for people as gifts is how one of our friends spends most of her time and she is never without a smile. I love to see happy people.  I love to see people who are retired and enjoying life.  How about you?  If you’re not as happy as you think you should be, think back to those childhood dreams, explore a new hobby or take a trip to someplace you always wanted to see.  Go out and make it happen.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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