Retirement Reflections

A collection of guidelines, observations, or thoughts that I picked up when planning to retire or that I learned after retiring. This is a work in process.

Post Retirement

1. Act now. While you may think with retirement that you have infinite free-time, you don't. You want to guard from procrastination.  

2. Do not sit down until 2:00 PM.  A co-worker shared this with me. The idea is you can do whatever you want as long as you're standing. Read a book or work on computer or do a jigsaw puzzle, but do it standing. The risk is once you sit down, you won't get back up.

3. Look forward, not just backward. A well-lived life is worth remembering, but there is still more living to be done, so we want to look forward as well. 

4. Guard from spreading yourself too thin. This balances an earlier guideline. You might have so many things on your list you want to jump into or lots of volunteer groups might want you to jump in right away. I found that adding things in one at a time allowed me to judge time commitments.

5. Balance structure and spontaneity. It's good to have some structure to ensure you're getting things done, but you also want the surprising and random fun.

6. Stay Connected. If the majority of your interactions with others was through work, then you'll need to be purposeful in keeping those connections or making new ones. I found setting a goal of at least two activities a week, and tracking it, was a good start.

7. Do you repeat yourself? Since your interactions may be more scattered, it might be more difficult to remember who heard your new joke or recent adventure. Most people are gracious about it, but just something to think about. Something I did while working was for a few people that I only connected with every four to six weeks was to make a list of things I wanted to be sure to tell that person. I used Google Keep to track.