Retirement Should Never Be Boring!
Retirement should never be boring. It always amazes me when I meet someone who says that they’re bored in retirement. I don’t believe it should ever happen but, sadly, it does. I started this website when someone told me they were bored and it still bogles my mind when I meet someone who says that this wonderful gift we’ve been given is not the most thrilling time of their lives. Even if I didn't travel or seek out entertainment like a movie or play, I would still not be bored. Relaxing with my morning coffee with no commute to work, no meetings to attend and no conference calls to be a part of is the start of a perfect and it only gets better from there.
Plan your days with the thought that Retirement should never be boring. Never!
Retirement should never be boring. Start a list of everything that you’re grateful for in this life and you will start to see how fortunate you are to be where you are. Think of how many people never get to this point. Anyone who gets to be old enough to retire should take the time to understand how lucky they are. Back in my younger days, summer vacation was the highlight of my life. It was like a mini retirement until Labor Day came around. I never understood my friends who said they were bored and had nothing to do in the summer. I really could not believe it. Did they want to be back in school? That was heresy to me. I was never bored. As the month of June came around, I made a list of all the things I wanted to do. There were more books on my list than I could ever get to (including the assigned reading from next year’s teacher) and more things that I wanted to do than I had time for. It’s exactly the way that I approached retirement.
I knew that retirement planning involved more than just finances. You had to figure out what to do with the forty, fifty or even sixty hours that you spent getting to and from work as well as the time you spent on the job. That’s a tremendous amount of time to fill every day if you don’t have a plan. If you’ve looked around this website at all, you know I like to plan. My plan included our travel list, a reading list and a host of subjects and topics that I wanted to learn more about. Although I hated going to school, I really enjoyed learning. I just wanted to do it at my own pace and learn about the things that interested me rather than the things the curriculum thought I needed learn about. The anatomy of a frog didn’t interest me in seventh grade, and it interests me even less now. I knew exactly how I was going to spend my retirement. I was never going to stop learning and when you have that as a motivation, I’m not sure how you ever get bored because there’s always something more to learn. When you look at the incredible world we live in and the history and culture of its different regions, there’s always something new that will catch your interest. That’s why retirement should never be boring.
If you took a survey of what was the subject that was the most boring in school, I think history might win and it is very hard for me to admit that. When history is put in the hands of a master storyteller, something wonderful happens. Events and people come alive in a way that gets you to want to know more. The history of our country would make an unbelievable soap opera and there have been some excellent examples of turning a chapter of our history into first-class entertainment. When Lin-Manuel Miranda read Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton and combined it with his creative genius we got the amazing "Hamilton" musical that has been entertaining audiences for decades. And, when David McCullogh's biography of John Adams became the subject of HBO's series "John Adams", the story of our second President took on a new through wonderful acting and directing. History is never boring when you combine it with a little creativity and the same thing can be said about this wonderful time of life because retirement should never be boring.
We have been fortunate enough to travel, and we seem to have created more memories in our first five years of retirement than we did in the previous forty-five years of marriage. We have seen things we never thought we would ever see. We had no money when we got married and absolutely no time. It was a real struggle for us. We could only imagine what it would be like to go on a cruise or drive through Europe. The Vatican and the ruins of ancient Greece or Rome and the Venice canals seemed beyond our reach. Now, we have made them cherished memories, and our knowledge of these places has been enhanced by personal visits and guided tours. We’ve sailed along the rivers of Europe and seen dozens of castles and incredible scenery. Travel is the best education you can get. It’s one thing to read about a place, but when you enhance it with an actual visit, you broaden your knowledge in a way that is hard to describe. And when you have the benefit of a local guide you feel like you have gained an insider’s knowledge that few people get to enjoy. You also become a wiser person because you realize how similar the problems ordinary people face is no matter what country you’re in. It’s an education you will never get in a book. We’ve taken tours in Chile, Peru, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and each guide said the top two problems their country was facing was immigration and climate change. We were stunned. You should always be open to learning new things. When you do that, you realize retirement should never be boring.
Take that “B” word out of your vocabulary and make a list of places you want to see and things you want to do. Check the Best Seller List and start making your way through it. Never stop learning. Never stop doing. Go out and see the world. It’s time to Enjoy Retired life!
Thanks for visiting. If you like what you see here, please tell your friends. If you haven’t done so already, be sure you take The Self Discovery Challenge for Retirement! It’s designed to help you make the most of this wonderful time of your life. You’re never too old to discover something new about yourself!
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