There is nothing easy about the future…especially retirement which has been portrayed as the antidote for work. We have been getting quite a few calls and emails lately from individuals regarding the challenges they are having in retirement. We did research to identify the main causes of their dissatisfaction. Almost sixty-five percent of the retirees we spoke with admitted that they were either very or somewhat bored. We also interviewed pre-retirees to see what concerns, if any, they were having about entering retirement. They often cited their fear of being bored or even worse becoming boring.
There is no easy formula for living a fulfilled future, but proven ingredients that help are having interests and hobbies in your pre-retirement life. Those activities almost guarantee a smoother entry into retirement and continued enjoyment into the future. Remember, you have been programmed to work. You may still have days that unsettle you. If you can't put your finger on it, perhaps it is just work withdrawl.
If you don’t have an interest or hobby to pursue, start looking for one or two or three. Try them out. If you don’t get traction with one, discard it and try another. If you are having trouble, ask yourself what you were interested in as a teen? You would be surprised how many retirees have embraced hobbies they had as a kid but abandoned for some reason. Maybe it’s time to take them up again.
It is up to you to make life interesting. As one retiree put it, “Nothing happens if you don’t make it happen.”
