You’re Retired…not dead
What are you doing that’s exciting?
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At first, retirement is about what you DON’T need to do any more. No more commute. No more getting up with the alarm clock. No more of the drudgery parts of your job. Once you don’t have to show up at the assigned time every day, there is bliss. For a while. Maybe you’re still in that mode.
NOT isn’t enough.
NOT doing things you don’t like only provides satisfaction until the memories of what you didn’t like dim. Then there has to be more. You need to be moving TOWARD something that appeals to you to keep the pleasure in your life. To do that, you need to know what it is.
Do you?
For many of us, this is new territory. What we need for a personally satisfying life once work is just an option has gotten lost in all the other needs we’ve been focused on meeting for so long.
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Satisfying retirement includes meaningful challenges. Are you busy with things that don’t satisfy you? What about work do you miss? Try our exercise: After the Cliff |
Sometimes, it takes a few years of retirement to grasp we have a right and responsibility to meet our own needs. But these needs are the core of who we are and addressing them is crucial to a meaningful life. Meaning generates passion. Passion creates energy. Energy provides light—also hope, enjoyment, and satisfaction.
Don’t settle for “whatever.”
The good news is you can ALWAYS add meaning to your life. If you didn’t have a clear idea of what you wanted to do the day you retired, you aren’t doomed to a rocking chair forever. Figure it out now. Don’t settle for “whatever.” It’s not that you have to know what makes you happy instantly and do it for the rest of your days. It’s that you need to keep looking for it, keep trying to stay on the bead of your own "true north."
