Many people’s mindset runs on the school calendar instead of the regular calendar. This is the time of year when kids are going back to school, the peak vacation season draws to a close and the falling leaves remind you the times they are a changing. If you’re retired, especially newly retired like I am, you might be feeling a bit left out right now. Left off your old team as your peers and friends head back to the engagement and pace of their careers. Moving forward by trying something new would be just the ticket!
A new activity is wonderful for your brain and your social network, and it’s a great reminder that you are a life-long learner. Plus, you just might discover something you love. My friends tried pickle ball just once and went out to buy themselves their own racket as soon as they left the court. Now they’re regulars! Another friend put a paintbrush to canvass a few years ago and just had three pieces in art shows this summer. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you were recently subjected to my first (and second) haiku.
What things are you interested in? Make a list. Or delve a little deeper with the exercise outlined in Ernie Zielinski’s book ‘How to retire wild, happy & free’. He asks that you sit for a time to ponder detailed options for activities in your retirement, by charting very specific personal reflections. I’m not a very good chart-thinker, so may have cut a few corners and I’ve since given the book to someone else who got super pumped about exploring activities in retirement! So I can’t look it up. Suffice it to say that the author thinks it’s worthwhile to reflect on not only the things that you enjoy doing now or always wanted to try, but also on the places your interests took you in the past. Those might create a very promising list of activities to try again.
Maybe also add a list of challenges that make the activities seem impossible for you right now – and another list of what you might be able to do to overcome those challenges. If membership costs are prohibitive, for instance, look at the possibility of volunteering your time at the place you want to do an activity at. Decades ago, my mom wanted to take an aquacise class, so she volunteered her time looking after the kids in the child-minding room while their parents were swimming. They, in turn, gave her a free pass to aquacise each time she volunteered. She got to take the class she wanted, plus she got to interact with children which was also a favourite activity for her. If volunteering is a component in making an activity happen for yourself, it’s already sure to be fulfilling on multiple levels.
So, I started with Mr. Zielinski’s basic idea and then made it work for myself. My page is crammed with notes and arrows to various ideas, including the activities I’m already committed to that are non-negotiable. This includes yoga, being an engaged friend, working part time, helping my neighbours, and practicing self-care (for me: massage, chiropractic, going for walks, and ensuring adequate rest to do all the other things on the list!). That’s already a long list, but when you put it down in writing things become quite clear. I, too, had thought retirement might find me behind an easel, but then I wrote it down and saw that there were many other things on the list that excite me more. I have it documented and when I update the list one day it may come to the top. But for now I might join a very amateur choir (which came as a surprise to me and will to others who have heard me sing! No one said we already had to be good at the things we put on our lists!)
Try making your own list and then try some of the things on it – and if those don’t work, try the next items on the list. No matter how many things you try before something sticks, I’m still thinking this all sounds way more interesting than what’s facing our former workmates who are returning to the 9-5 grind!