Many of us haven’t had the luxury of thinking about any of this for most of our adult lives because we have been, in essence, living for others. Now that you’re retired, you can have some fun rediscovering yourself.
Childhood Dreams
When you were a child, before the reality of adulthood set in, what did you want to do? When we were children we didn’t think about having to go to school or how much money something was going to earn us. We were just sponges, watching other people, checking out the adults around us, getting information everywhere our senses found it. We played games or role-played our fantasies about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Can you remember any of that now? Write it down and keep coming back to it. I often find that writing helps me get in touch with past thoughts.
The Bookstore Exercise
Go into a used bookstore. Browse through the stacks and see what things attract your attention. Make a list of these things. Basically it’s one of lots of ways to try and get back in touch with what’s interesting to you. What catches your interest?
Trying Things On
There are surely no “shoulds” or “one particular thing” or any of that. You have the freedom now to try things on. If you’ve always loved theatre, call your favorite local theatre group and volunteer to help build stages. If you love outdoor activity, join a hiking, walking or bicycling club. Not only will you get in shape but you’ll also make new friends.
These are just a couple of examples, I’m certain there are at least as many more as there are people coming up with them. If you just started making a list of things you’ve always wanted to try, I’ll bet you’d be surprised at what you come up with. Then you may even want to check with your local community college and learn about the options for inexpensive online classes available.
Always remember to have fun and play as much as you can. Playing, or experiencing the world through joyfulness, opens up our hearts to possibilities we would otherwise miss.
1 response so far ↓
1 Minerva // Jan 14, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I wanted to travel. Especially abroad. My childhood and youth were spent in a then communist country with severe restrictions on travel abroad. You had to apply to get a passport for every travel separately with a compulsory interview with security police. Before even applying you had to show you had foreign currency (which it was illegal to buy… but legal to get as a gift from someone who was entitled to have it: a foreigner, for example) or that you had an official, certified by their embassy, invitation from somebody living abroad. I chose my career to allow me to travel abroad - luckily it was within the sphere of my interests
And even now, many years later, I still put travel, especially to any new and as yet unknown place as a top priority.
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