Disconnected

Let me just say that losing one’s computer for a week can cause a personality crisis, a social meltdown or some other unexplainable malady.  Normally I would not have been in such dire straits when this happened a week ago but once a person is retired her whole social network is based on communication which in turn is mainly computer based (i.e. emails, Facebook, blogging).  The crisis has been handled by the purchase of a brand new computer when another mini-crisis occurred – getting it set up.  Miraculously I managed to do it all by myself, even the Outlook email functions.  Mind you, right now I am a little suspicious in that I have not received any emails, although I have been able to send out.  Usually in the mornings I have several from Facebook at least.

Today I am at the end of my third week in retirement and I am happy to be able to say that each week has ended with a “wow” rather than the “boy time flies” attitude.  Many people will say that they are busier than ever in retirement which I am finding true with me.  I had my first one-on-one coaching session with the retirement coach last week and something he told me really shocked me.  As much as I have researched retirement I had not come across this statistic.  In one particular company pre-retirement seminars were offered for many years and after some time surveys were conducted.  Those who retired at age 65 but had never chosen to take any of the seminars were dead in (guess) – 3 months!  I had expected the answer to be 1 to 3 years so you can imagine I almost fell off my chair when he said months!

Planning retirement is much more than looking after the financial side of things, although that is important.  I like to call it the holistic side of retirement where you plan how you are going to stay mentally and physically activity with exercise, family and social activities.  You also need to plan for some sort of spiritual time whether that be religious, meditation or just personal “me” time.  Most important of all you need to have enough interests and hobbies to dispose of the extra 8 to 10 hours a day that were previously used for “work”.  Golfing simply does not cut it for those who live in Canada (or elsewhere for that matter).  Volunteering may be a good way to dispose of some of the time but I recommend that you do not get swallowed up with so much volunteering that it becomes your new job. 

My coach hasn’t come right out and said it but I think I am his star pupil . . . . and I haven’t come right out and said it (to him) but I think I could do his job.  Am I calling myself an expert?  After studying retirement of more than 8 years I am thinking, maybe.  J