Retirement is a Sabbatical

During my working career, vacations were always something to look forward to.  On two occasions, I was able to put two weeks together and could not believe what a difference it made.  With a one-week vacation, halfway through, I always started thinking about what was awaiting me at work but, with two weeks, I found a great sense of satisfaction as the first week came to an end and I knew we had another seven days to go.  My wife was a teacher, so she knew what it was like to have summers off.  One of my professors in college always talked about the joys of his sabbatical year and, I got close to retirement, it occurred to me that retirement is a sabbatical and the good thing is that it can go on and on.  For those in the educational field it was a time to do more research or write a book or to specialize in a particular area of study to broaden their understanding and knowledge of a particular area of interest.  That’s exactly what retirement is or can be if you plan it that way.

Retirement is a time to reshape your life and to take inventory of how you got to this period that is often referred to as the golden years.  Many people look at retirement as a time to sit back and do nothing.  To me, that is wasting a golden opportunity.  We spend decades working to get to this point in our lives.  How many things did we pass up because we were too busy working?  How many hobbies and enjoyable projects were put on hold to make a living to support our families?  We saved for this time in our life so we should look at it as a time to spend those dollars that were sacrificed for future enjoyment.  Just like those professors who took time away from teaching to further their research, retirement is a sabbatical that we can use to keep developing as a person.  There are so many things to do and places to see.  There are so many subjects to study further.  We should never stop learning or stop doing new things.  That’s what keeps us young.  This is a time to reshape our lives and lose ourselves in new things, study new subjects and visit new places.

Retirement is a sabbatical and a time to re-think your life.

Think of all the things that you wanted to do but didn’t have the time.  Your time has come to tackle that list.  Retirement is a sabbatical to explore all the things that held your interest at one time in your life.  Did you want to learn to play an instrument or to read music?  Did you want to write a novel or become a travel guide on a safari?  Did you ever want to join the golf tour or play first base for the Chicago Cubs?  Retirement is the time to make those things happen.  Does that sound impossible?  It’s not.  If you’re willing to make some modifications to your dreams, almost anything can be accomplished and give almost the same feeling as your original fantasy.  Will you make the starting lineup of a major league team?  No, but you can have an awful lot of fun being part of a senior’s league and, if you drive in the winning run or make an amazing play out in the field, you’ll be surprised at how good it makes you feel.  But you have to decide what it is that you want to accomplish and create a plan to make it happen.  It can totally change your retirement years and turn boredom into excitement.  It’s the only way to approach retirement.

As I was winding down my working career, we were filling up our calendar with travel plans.  We were also designing a building a house in an area we had never lived before.  The Hudson Valley was always a place that attracted me and my wife was kind enough to indulge me in this fantasy.  Fortunately, it has turned out better than we could have imagined.  We got away from the hectic pace and heavy traffic of Long Island and moved to a little community with a lake that is about a mile from the Hudson River.  Not only is retirement a sabbatical but so is getting away from a congested living area.  For some people the rural life is torture, but we have found it to be absolutely wonderful.  People were asking me what I would be doing every day to keep from going crazy.  In the back of my mind, I always thought I would start to make writing a part of my life.  I have always found the act of writing to not only be challenging and enjoyable but something I could use to understand life a little bit better than I had when I was doing nothing but working and focusing on the business that I was a part of.  I learned a great deal and applied it as well as I could, but it wasn’t very satisfying.  I was more interested in history and foreign cultures and seeing different parts of the world.

What I ended up doing was to start this website about enjoying retirement because too many people told me how bored they were once they stopped working.  I couldn’t believe it and I also couldn't believe how sorry I felt for them.  Retirement should be the best time of your life.  College professors use their sabbatical year to re-focus and reshape their research.  Everyone should look at retirement in that way.  The good news is that retirement is a sabbatical that keeps on going.  You can make your retirement years into whatever you want them to be.  Become a travel writer or a food critic.  Start your own website and you can have that business operating quicker and for less cost than you ever thought possible.  Use technology to the fullest.  Start your own business or podcast or cooking class.  The possibilities are endless and the only limitation is you.  Retirement is a blank canvas, and you get to be the artist.  Go out and make things happen.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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