In recent months I’ve been writing about my goal to make retirement the best chapter of my life. If you have been reading my articles here, I sincerely thank you. (And thank you MyCalgary.com for publishing them!)
If you have been reading my articles, you may be thinking that I am making great headway in the pursuit of my favourite retirement f-words – family, friends, fitness, faith, food and fun. I’m here to tell you that in at least one area – fitness – I definitely am not.
Despite all good intentions, not to mention an excellent fitness regimen that I paid a personal trainer good money to design for me, I am not working out. Nope. Nada. It ain’t happening.
Oh, I go for walks sometimes. Fairly often, I do push ups to forestall the dreaded back-of-the-upper-arm flab. But as time goes on, it seems to me that my fitness level is steadily declining and I don’t seem to have the motivation or energy to do anything about it.
Recently, I was chatting with my friend Sue about retirement. She mentioned that, after 16 years, she is “professionally” retired. It seems to me that Sue is the epitome of fitness—her skin glows, she is strong and trim, and I know she is a very active cyclist and hiker—so I asked her to share some of her retirement secrets.
When she emailed her thoughts to me, I was amazed. She said very little about physical fitness. Instead, her advice focused on fitness of another kind: emotional, spiritual and relational.
Sue’s retirement tips are so good that I am sharing them here:
- Start building interests outside work as soon as possible. Everyone hopes to retire one day and it takes practice to retire well.
- Build and keep strong life-giving relationships. One’s social health is just as important as one’s physical health.
- Practice spending time with yourself alone. You have to learn to be your own best friend.
- Embrace change. This is what will keep you young and mentally vibrant.
- Search the world for what you believe. Ask yourself: Where did I come from? Was I created for a purpose by a supreme being or am I an accident of nature? What are my talents and strengths? How can I use them to benefit others?
- Find a mentor or friend you can discuss challenges with. Often just verbalizing problems can help clarify them. This will help keep you emotionally healthy.
- Keep balance in your life. Physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and social health must all be nurtured.
Two things stand out for me. One is the concept of practice—I must practise retiring well by developing personal interests, nurturing relationships and spending quality time with myself. Practice implies self-discipline, something I have always struggled with in terms of fitness.
The other is balance. I need to divert some of the energy I readily devoted to hobbies, friends and my inner world to the building of a stronger body, so I can keep up with all the fun stuff in my future. I’ll let you know how it goes!
