The Three Keys to a Happy Retirement
When you ask someone how to be happy in retirement, quite often you’ll get answers that list good health, financial security and an active lifestyle as the key ingredients. It’s hard to argue with that and, on the surface, it sounds logical. The fact is, however, we know many people who have all of those things and are still complainers. When you talk to them you only hear about what is wrong with their life and it’s hard to tell if they’re happy or not. It got me to think about what really goes into a happy existence in retirement or any other time in life. It’s a question that’s worth considering and the answer may be different for everyone. If you read what some great thinkers wrote and do a little research on your own, you may be surprised that the three keys to a happy retirement may not be what you originally thought.
When I sit down to compose my own list I always start with gratitude. Everything we have in life is a gift. Now I’m very aware that this attitude will meet with some criticism and that we seem to live in a world of “self-made” individuals who believe they earned everything they have in life but it doesn’t take too much thought to put that self-centered focus aside and realize we had nothing to do with our own creation. When you realize that and take a look at this amazing world that we live in, you quickly realize we are in the presence and at the mercy of a force much greater than us. Nowadays people are hesitant to say the word “God”, and you hear things like Divine Intelligence, the Creator or even the Force but, in the end, we’re talking about something we will never fully understand but should be in awe of. We start to wonder about what role we should be playing in this grand story we call life. When I’m asked to list the three keys to a happy retirement, I always begin with gratitude and the thankfulness we should have for being a part of this incredible universe that is so large no one can fully comprehend how vast it is and why we should even be one fragment of this gigantic picture and that leads us to ask what’s the purpose for our existence?
The three keys to a happy retirement may not be what you originally thought.
If there are three keys to a happy retirement and the first is an attitude of gratitude, it only follows that finding our purpose should be next on the list. Why were we created in the first place. I don’t believe any of us are an accident and I believe each of us has a bit of discovery to do to figure out why we’re here to begin with. Everyone is here for a reason. For some reason I’m positive of that. The reason is as unique as we are as individuals. There’s never been another person exactly like you and there will never be another one created. That is amazing by itself. And, if you casually dismiss it with a “so what?” attitude, I think you’ve missed the whole point of your life. There’s a reason you are unique and it matches your purpose in life. Why are you here? That’s the mystery that needs to be solved and I think it leads us to what I believe is the last key to happiness.
If there are three keys to a happy retirement and the first two are gratitude and finding your purpose, the last piece is the enabler to a successful journey: learning. We are here to learn as much about our inner self as we can, explore this wonderful world we were brought into according to our interests and passions and to learn as much as we can so that we can find our purpose in life. It is indeed the ultimate mystery and, if you’ve read any good ones, you’ll know what happens as you read the story. You find yourself asking why did that happen and what does it all mean? How do I piece it together? The key to happiness in retirement and in life is in putting the puzzle together and you can rest assured that the pieces are all there. There won’t be a single piece missing because just as Dorothy found out when she ended up in Oz, she had the answers all the time. You can find your clues by paying attention to what makes you unique as an individual. What drives your passion and interest in life? How do you make that activity into something that will benefit others? How do make serving others your purpose in life because whenever we serve others that is where true happiness is found. It can be as puzzling as a good Sherlock Holmes mystery and it’s waiting to be solved. It’s Time to Enjoy Retired Life.
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