I’m working now, but as the site address suggests, I’m a retiree-wannabe. I had hoped to make the leap last year, but
it didn’t happen. This year I’m hoping
it will.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with all
that free time I’ll have. (Those of you
who have already retired can quit laughing now.) My friends who are already retired tell me
they are busier than ever---many don’t know how they ever found time to work. And while
most of them are doing what they wanted to do, a few have just fallen into
things. So I want to make sure I end up
doing what I really want to do.
To that end I’ve been making a list of all the things I want
to do or am interested in checking out. A type of bucket list. I know I won’t have time to do everything,
and I want to make sure I end up doing what is really important to me. This way, if something comes up that isn’t
on my list, it will be easier to say ‘no’.
In the past I’ve ended up working on projects or committees that
involved things that didn’t really interest me.
But for one reason or another I
agreed to take on the project when I was asked. This time around I want to have a plan, a
structure, for my time.
At the top of my list is writing. I have an unfinished novel and another one
in the idea stage. Not to mention this
blog, and another blog idea that I’m considering. Getting the novel completely written is
priority numero uno, even if it never gets published. I’ll probably continue writing a blog, too,
either this one or something different.
I’d also like to return to taking Spanish lessons. I had to quit last year when things got
totally crazy and out of control at work.
I want to keep mentally sharp, and studying a language will help with
that. Plus I love Mexico and would like
to take trips there more often.
I know I have to schedule in some exercise time. If not, I’ll start to write or read and never
break a sweat all day. Except for
walking and splashing about in the pool, exercising isn’t something I
enjoy. There’s no excuse not to do it. Sun City Grand has two activity centers with
classes in aerobics, dance, yoga, and lots more. So another goal is to find a physical
activity I like, sign up, and show up.
My need for structure was never more clear than yesterday,
when I had an afternoon “free”. I had
thought about going to a new bead shop, my latest hobby interest, or attending
a beading session here at Sun City Grand.
I looked at the info for two bead stores that give lessons, and I
stopped in briefly at the beading group.
But I never took a class or strung a bead all day.
I cleaned the casita. On my “free” afternoon! It needed it, but cleaning wasn’t my plan
when I started the day. The problem,
of course, was that I didn’t have a plan for the day.
Writer Aimee Bender found she needed structure in order to
write consistently. She wrote about it
in her article “A Contract of One’s Own”, published in this month’s O, the Oprah Magazine. Years ago she started writing in a closet for
two hours, and has continued the two hour routine long after leaving that
closet. “If left to my own devices,” she
writes, “a blank page and a free day and that meadow, little will get done and
I’ll feel awful about it. But put me in
a box for two set hours and say go? It
is one of the most steadying elements of my life.”
That’s the way I feel about my retirement time. I’ll need a plan, a structure, so that the
things that are important to me get done.
I’m working on the list now. Then I plan to prioritize it and figure out
how many things I can fit into a day or a week.
If anyone else has
approached retirement this way, I’d like to hear how it’s working out.