Retirement can be a mixed blessing for those of us who feel the drive to continue to work and be productive. It’s common for retirees to retire and then start to get bored after a couple of years if they haven’t found something to keep them busy. Alternatively, retirement can sometimes cause a lot of stress in the household from spending so much time with family.
If you’re struggling with boredom in retirement, there are ways that you can shift your focus to find some excitement and purpose again. Let’s look at some examples, shall we?
1. Rekindle an old passion you had to set aside.
Life can get busy with responsibility as you work, try to raise a family, manage a relationship, and whatever other life responsibilities you might have. Once your available hours fill up, what gets cut? Well, we typically cut leisure activities, hobbies, and recreation to make room for the important things that we need to do.
Retirement gives you an opportunity to go back and start looking at the passions or interests that you didn’t have time for while working. It’s a great time to think about other things that have caught your interest, but that you didn’t have time to explore. And, hopefully, you’ll have the extra resources needed to really dive into it.
2. Learn something new.
Learning is the gift that keeps on giving. Being older, you’ll know better than anyone how powerful it is to have a wide scope of knowledge and experiences. Branch out. Retirement gives you time to explore new things. Not only that, but the Alzheimer’s Society informs us that learning engages your brain and “exercises” it in such a way that it can help stave off age-related health issues like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Thanks to the internet, it’s not too hard to find some specific courses for a variety of things if you can’t find something in the real world. You could learn a new language, join a photography club, or even go back to college to take some classes.
I was friends with a gentleman who just kept taking classes long after he had finished his original degree. At that point, he had multiple other associate’s degrees, two bachelor’s degrees, and qualified for more. He was an older man, in his late 70s, making the most of his free time by then. Classes really gave him something to look forward to, and he would tutor the students to supplement his retirement.
3. Volunteer for a cause that moves you or helps your community.
Retirees make great volunteers because they bring a worldly view and experiences to the task that others may not have. Not only that, but there are a lot of organizations that need experienced, knowledgeable people sitting on their board to help guide the organization to success. For example, if you retire as an accountant, you still have all of that knowledge and experience that you can apply to solving the organization’s problems.
Being involved in charity and volunteer work is a fantastic way to integrate with your community, make new friends, and find new experiences. It’s also something you can regularly look forward to if you feel like it’s a good fit and want to work with them in the long term.
4. Get physically active and exercise how you can.
Exercise doesn’t have to be boring or extreme. It can be fun, so long as you choose some form of exercise that you actually like doing. Even if you don’t want to hit the gym, you could try something like pickleball, a walking group, or some fancy dance lessons.
There are plenty of classes out there specifically for seniors. And, as the National Council on Aging shares, even getting started after 60 can help you preserve your balance, prevent falls, and keep your muscles from deteriorating too much.
Movement energizes the body and mind. It helps keep the machine that is your body in good working order, which is valuable as getting older takes a toll on your health. The more active you are, the easier it is to maintain your health as you get older.
5. Connect with new people, not just old friends.
Creating new social connections matters for a couple of reasons. The first is that it helps to have a wide network of people to spend time with, work with, or do other things with. You meet new people, you learn new things, and you can have new experiences by just trying out what they’re into. And, you get the enjoyment of showing them the things that you like.
A common struggle for seniors is loneliness. As we get older, we lose people. If you’re not expanding your social network, then as you lose people, you won’t have anyone to socialize with as friends. You don’t necessarily want to totally rely on family, given how busy life can get. You may not be able to get the fulfillment that you’re looking for from your family members.
Sometimes, we just need some friends to kick back and relax with.
6. Travel, even if it’s just locally.
You don’t need to jet off around the world to find some adventure and excitement. In fact, it’s pretty easy to overlook things in your own town if you aren’t spending much time out and about. Take some time to explore.
Are there any attractions in town that interest you that you’ve not been to? Something you haven’t been to in a long time?
Alternatively, head for the next big city and get a hotel room for a night or two. Explore some attractions or events there. If you live in a smaller area, that might be a better option to find something fun to do.
7. Set small, meaningful goals.
Far too many people think that finding purpose in life is about big dreams and huge projects. For most people, it’s not. For most people, finding purpose and meaning is about setting small goals to give yourself something to look forward to and work toward.
Maybe you can do something like write down stories about your life to share with your kids, or learn to play a song on an instrument, or maybe start something like a little garden. You can also make small goals to help improve your health and well-being, too. Maybe you want to walk a certain number of minutes per day, or get just a little exercise in.
Those small goals keep you moving forward when you feel like you may be stalling out.
8. Create a routine for your days that gives structure.
One challenge you might experience in retirement is a blending of days. If you don’t have a schedule, then time can fly really fast, as each day just kind of blends together. In the blink of an eye, it can be weeks or months later, and you’ve lost all of this time where you could have been building out the kind of life in retirement that will add to your happiness.
Structure will help you build in a rhythm so that you can incorporate all the things that will benefit you in retirement, such as time for creativity, movement, rest, and social connection. A structure and schedule will help you balance the freedom of not having to report to work with purpose, giving you things to look forward to.
9. Consider consulting in your industry.
After formal retirement, some folks decide to get into consulting within their industry to make use of their decades of institutional knowledge. If you’re the type of person who needs to be working, or else you feel that everything is wrong in the world, this can be a better option than getting a job as a door-greeter. Or, maybe you want to work as a door-greeter! Whatever appeals to you.
If you opt to go this route, do make sure you research what consultants make in your industry. Unethical actors will try to take advantage of your not knowing or understanding about independent contracting and consulting. A good rule of thumb for a fee is that it should be about two to three times the cost of what would be your hourly wage. If you’re salaried, you can still do the math to figure that out.
The reason it’s that much is because consultants are independent contractors, not employees. The company saves money because they don’t need to pay your taxes, benefits, or manage an independent contractor in the same way as an employee. So, they’ll often try to low-ball you to shave even more off of their expenses. Get what you’re worth.
Final thoughts…
Retirement can be the next beautiful stage of your life with some planning and effort. It’s quite the transition to go from the responsibilities and demands of a career to suddenly having an extra 40+ hours a week with nothing to really do.
Goals will keep you moving and engaged with your life as you make that transition. Then, you can coast into your golden years to enjoy your hard-earned rest and relaxation.
