How to Find and Maintain Purpose in Retirement

AMAC Newsline ^ | 23 Dec, 2024 | Dick Lyles

[bunkerhill7]

I never retired.

[FreedomPoster]

Get involved with the local Republican Party. Vote out the country clubber RINOs. Be an election observer. Lots of things to do there, and we’ve all ignored it too much for years. Good self-governance requires sustained involvement by many.

[Larry Lucido]

:-)

[rlmorel]

I have this list for when I retire:

Exercise every day
Learn to draw expertly
Learn another language
Take a writing course
Learn gardening
Master a 3D application
Write Letters
Be a driver for veterans
Write ten songs
Learn to play violin
Learn to play piano
Learn how to use a firearm competently
Learn Celestial Navigation
Bake bread expertly
Render computer training and troubleshooting to those in need of it
Learn how to make a shirt
Throw a costume party
Serve as a historic docent or guide
Learn to play the drums
Sing with other people
Learn how to make castings
Carve wooden birds
Learn woodblock printing
Get a Blue Jay to eat from my hand
Obtain a non-IT job and perform it competently
Build a homemade mobile solar power unit
Keep bees
Make good pasta sauce
Write a series of short stories
Build a Remote Control plane

[rlmorel]

I get what you mean. I didn’t include spirituality related items in my retirement bucket list because I am working on those today!

[ryderann]

My goal is to find and develop the finest tomato with the best disease resistance for my area.

[rlmorel]

That is a worthy goal!

[SomeCallMeTim]

Same here. I retired 6/30/23. Still pretty new at this. But what’s not to love? The wife and I go to the gym every Tue-Thur, sometimes on the weekend. When weather permits, I play golf once or twice a week. We go and do as we please. I read books. Surf the net. Play incredible video games. Have occasional lunches with friends.

Heading to Florida on Friday to see the grands, and then on a 7 night cruise. Gee… I so miss all the monthly reports, strategy planning sessions, missed production targets, frustrated customers, lazy co-workers….etc. so much. LOL !!!

[Tell It Right]

I may consider prison ministry. Right now I volunteer leading financial small groups and leading children's church. I used to lead a lot of Bible study Sunday school classes/small groups, but we now have tons of others doing that while we have a shortage of financial group leaders.

I've also thought about getting my church to try solar. I doubt it'd be feasible to make 80% of the church's power consumption come from solar like my house is. The church's power consumption is too bursty (need tons of power during Sundays, especially during the summer to run the AC, and to have enough solar for that would mean too much solar the rest of the time). But I wouldn't be surprised if 30% homemade power is about as much as we could invest in to get a good ROI without running into the law of diminishing returns. That might give the church a little cushion if the God hating left uses their energy policies to turn the heat onto churches and try to make us bow to their hedonism. And if it works, I might help other churches do the same. (Really optimizing it requires a lot of analysis of the data from the solar inverter on various times of day, based on what the weather was at that time of day, etc. I did that kind of analysis with my small solar system so I'd know how much to add onto it when I upgraded it. I told my pastor if it worked I might wind up helping other churches do the same.)

[Savage Beast]

Are you kidding??? I retired at age 53. Since then it's been endless growth, discovery, personal improvement, moving closer and closer to God!

My life has been WONDERFUL! since retiring!

[KingLudd]

“I knew what I was going to do in retirement when I was 16 years old.”

Care to share what it is?

[Obadiah]

Concur. I reflected on the fact that since I was 5 years old my life was completely structured and all my time was regimented around the structure of school and work. Even moments of free time, such as a vacation, were squeezed into a forced time frame. So for multiple decades I have lived serving that structure.

Now that those days are behind me the liberty I have seems almost surreal. I’ve been retired for about four years and I still wake up daily pinching myself about how blessed I am. My spouse suggested I get some part-time gig. There is no way I will ever go back to even a minimal structure. The thought of getting locked into someone else’s schedule again is unnerving.

I am extremely happy to do my hobbies, work out 3 to 4 times a week, help my wife’s grow herbusiness, and give my life away to volunteer pursuits and my kids. I sound like an old man I guess, but my prayer is to live long enough to see at least one grandchild from each of my kids. Then I’ll die a happy, fulfilled man.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Retirement is supposed to be for enjoyment. Not working toward goals everyday. I’m exhausted just reading his article.

My goal for today is to get everything packed in the truck and get to our rural compound by dark so we can eat tacos and drink wine. 😉

[Poser]

I’m retired. My goal is to manage my finances well so I never have to say, “welcome to WalMart.”

[V_TWIN]

“I so miss all the monthly reports, strategy planning sessions, missed production targets, frustrated customers, lazy co-workers”

Did we work at the same place? 😁

Remember, WE EARNED IT.

Also, some call me Tim as well.....well, everybody does.

Enjoy the cruise. 👍

[dakine]

My retirement goal is to swim in the Ocean everyday. I’m practicing for retirement while still employed.

[cgbg]

“My spouse suggested I get some part-time gig.”

I explain that I have a full-time job—speaking truth to power online—in a variety of different forums.

It is a total myth that one person cannot make a difference.

The butterfly effect is real.

One comment or suggestion you make may go around the world a hundred times before it reaches someone who agrees and has the power to do something about it.

[equaviator]

The key is not goals so much as it is finding/having meaning.

Quality of meaning matters.

[econjack]

I’m a retired (2009) university prof and have discovered I’m very good at it! I love writing and continue to write books and articles, mostly about my hobby (amateur radio). My one suggest for those who are new to retirement: keep your work-life early-morning routine. For me, that’s a shower and shave before breakfast. Simple idea, but I find that I’m more active when I do that. Otherwise, I tend to stay in the house and feel kinda lazy all day. Try to get outside each day, meet friends for lunch, take an adult education class, try something new that sounds interesting. I’ve discovered I really enjoy cooking...who knew?

[Obadiah]

Helping fill the void and countering the darkness.