Why is our society so hyper focused on being over productive? Late night hours, working weekends, constantly checking in – these habits are not good for your health. Just walk away, turn down requests and relax for a better retirement.
Ego (Flattery) Gets in Our Way
If you are not far from your regular work life, the pull back might be strong. You might be asked to “help out” and take a consultant role to help a new hire that has replaced you. The company might want you to continue on a certain project where only you can solve the issues! You are needed! They will pay you! But I advise you to walk away, turn down requests and relax. It simply is not worth the hassle.
Your New Retirement Habits are Simply Groovy
Hey I said it. Groovy, man. These days of no alarm ringing in the wee hours, fighting with traffic and over aggressive drivers, trying to drink coffee while commuting – who needs these things? No one. It’s your retirement – you’ve earned it – why not enjoy it? I bet your pets are super happy to have you pay attention to them throughout the day, not just at 6:15 am and 8:30 at night. They want more of you and frankly – you want more of them too!
Beware of your spouse encouraging you to “go back” and make more money because they want to book a few cruise vacations. That’s not really a big thing in your retirement anyway – it’s a bonus vacation thing you will do. But just chasing down money from your old company is not ideal. The politics of the office are still there. That chatty person that accosts people at the water fountain and never shuts up – yes, they are still there too. I can just feel your stress level rising as I mention just those 2 items! Your best bet is to simply –
walk away, turn down requests and relax.
Time for a New You
It’s time to break your old life habits and get those new ones in line. List all the things you like to do. Add a few more things you want to learn or experience. Create a plan to make these new things happen. Maybe travel? Gain consensus with your spouse on a few of these but not all things need to be done together. This is “you” time! Walk away from busy time-sucking house projects!
Walk away – Say No
In the work environment we were trained to embrace new projects, say “yes” to our boss even though you knew something was going to fail, go to company retreat meetings and do the bonding exercises companies put you through to make it appear everyone’s on a great team. Well that is over now! It’s now a team of one (or 2 if you are including your spouse). Possible good things to say no to now are:
Say no to:
- fancy dinners at overpriced restaurants where you can’t hear any conversations amongst friends. No!
- watching dogs, kids, cats, plants for others while they go away and have fun. No!
- taking on extra work from the office to “help out” because your experience is needed. No!
- driving long distances where there is no compensation for your time or effort (help someone move, etc.) No!
It’s these types of things that start to annoy you and wonder what’s so great about retirement. You know what’s great? You can say no to all these things and stay home with your pets and grab a sandwich or two and join your neighbors in a game of poker on someone’s back porch for the afternoon. Drinks optional! Isn’t that more important than all of those items I mentioned above?
Take Time for You
The whole purpose of this blog post is to remind you to take time for yourself. I hope I’ve encouraged you to go easy on yourself and truly walk away from old work obligations, turn down requests from people that think you are just idle doing nothing in the daytime and walk away from things that you simply don’t care to do.
You got this. Happy retirement!