There are people who retire and think, “OK now I can sit back in the easy chair and relax. I worked hard all
my life and now I can coast.” I have to admit that it is nice to be able to
relax and do things I enjoy but the idea of doing nothing with my life after
retirement is just not the way to go. I have witnessed too many people who
retired and sat and then began to die. To suddenly go from very busy to not
busy at all is hard on the heart and all your other body systems.
The challenge in retirement is what do I do with me now.
When it is possible to live to over a hundred years we have a long time spend
in retirement. Having planed financially for the day of retirement so that I
could live comfortably with out working for a living, I need to refocus my
life. Some ten years before retirement I received a book from my pension fund
that asked an important question. “What do you do after retirement?” It was an
encouragement to start the process of refocusing my life long before I made
that great change.
Spending a few weeks just relaxing and shifting gears was
about all the time I needed. Being a Pastor of a church is to be on call
twenty-four/seven and being a member of every committee and group in the
church. That is a lot of meetings. Then suddenly no committees and no need to
be out of bed and ready for work at an early hour. Sunday was real change to be
able to sit in the pew with my wife and worship instead of directing worship.
Nice!
The challenge was now what? I could focus my involvement in
thing I enjoy. I volunteered to do many things in the community and the church
and that for me was the key. I am still busy but on my terms. In church I may
do a lot of ministry but without committees. In the community I became a mayor and chaplain
for the local fire department. As I love to write my daughters got me involved
in blogging and I love it. Life is good in retirement when you meet the
challenge to be active and alive.
Sounds great Larry. I'm only "semi" retired, so I'm not quite as footloose as you. Still, it's nice. I work a little, make a few $$, meet a few people. I guess this is my transition period. :)
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Transitions are nice too. You can ease into a new adventure.
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