YOU GET THIS ONE LIFE

What we have to give as retired people is boundless. Think of the education, work experience, talent, life experience we possess. We can pack it up in a box like the day we left our paid jobs and be the “blue hairs” or we can jazz it up and find where our particular talents can be used by younger, less experienced CEO’s, teachers, electricians, book keepers, chiefs, doctors, care givers. Don’t under estimate your value. We retirees are revamping the world.

I think planning on how we wish to live, as the “older folks” in the neighborhood is as valuable as figuring out how we want to exit this world.

We decided how to spend our time, our energy. Listen to your heart.

It takes a year after retirement to really settle in and discover what you want to fill your hours with. Many people will have wonderful ideas of what YOU should do. Thank them. Say you will add it to the list of other ideas you have received. And get back to them.

While working, caring for our parents and children, running volunteer groups in our communities and churches, doing laundry, maintaining a home we didn’t have time to breathe and think about what lifts our spirits, ignites our imaginations. Well, we do now and just stand back.

I will never be an astronaut but I may study the stars, the galaxies. I have friends who are displaying their artistic talents by painting and being very successful at it. Others who are realizing they like to be around children and are augmenting their retirement income working as classroom aids.

Or on cruise ships teaching classes in photography. Think about what your perfect day would look like – and begin to make it so.

You get this one life.