3 years into retirement, good health makes a difference.

Enjoy yourself

It's taking me this much time to just decompress and get off the nine-to-five schedule. Not to mention all of the overdue items on the "to do" list.

different lifestyle, of your own making. To some, it comes easier, to others, it takes a little more work and time. Learning to exist on your own terms, 100% is indeed a challenge and a total change when you are no longer marching to someone else's drumbeat.

My biggest piece of advice to my fellow friends who are retiring now, is to take it easy at first, don't go running and taking other part time jobs or something else when you retire. So many of them took on part time jobs, not for the money but for, I guess, keeping 'busy'. The other piece of advice is to not go out and spend, spend, spend. You don't need to do that at first, just kick back, and start enjoying the peace and quiet, the companionship of your fellow retirees or the other friends of yours that have retired prior to when you did. You know where they're at.

I was free as of March 1st. I live in Texas and the weather was not too hot and not too cold then, so I had a lot of outdoor projects that I wanted to get started and completed before the brutal summer. I got most of them done. One of those projects was a paved outdoor garden area that is behind the cat sanctuary that I have. (Another story!) This garden area has lots of plants, a sitting area and a lovely hammock. I spend time out there, but the brutal summer is now upon us and it literally forces me to put some things on hold.

So, I've really been concentrating lately on the decompressing. I love an afternoon "siesta". Lying down somewhere comfy, watching mindless old movies or something else entertaining but not stressful, falling asleep for a bit, etc.

I make sure that I get myself out and see friends at least once a week and usually twice because I don't want to allow myself to become a total hermit - and I think I would if I didn't make myself do otherwise! I am lucky to have good neighbors and we visit occasionally over our common fences.

When I feel like I'm ready, I hope to take a couple of classes just to keep my mind going. Maybe a writing class. I think it would be fun to do it without having to worry about getting a certain grade, etc.

And, of course, I enjoy my DU friends and interactions!

smart too, to make sure to keep your mind active and sharp too, that's an item that will pay off a lot later on down the road.

SCAN - senior citizen afternoon nap.

I'm 74, and worked until 1 month shy of my 70th birthday. I enjoy a good SCAN when the mood strikes.

May you continue decompression like a deep-sea diver defeating the bends rising to the surface lifting your spirit to the sky breathing in clear pure air. Good for YOU. Well done.

George

As to the signature line, I'm a Democrat for a lot of reasons, but the biggest reason is equality. The loss of Roe was a turning point in time for his old broad because I remember all of us fighting SO HARD to make choice legal. I remind anyone and everyone on any occasion that I can that no one is going to force a woman to have an abortion, but no one should force a woman to have a child either. And I'll keep screaming that until my last breath.

Hope you have a great afternoon!

That was 23 years ago. My secret is, don’t take out any loans. 73 years old and as busy as I was when I worked.

Wow! 23 years!!! You must be a pro by now!!! LOL

I think the staying busy is a big part of the secret - with some down time, at least. It's nice to be able to pick what we want to keep us busy, though, instead of having someone TELL us what we have to do with our time. I enjoy that aspect a lot - the freedom to decide for myself!

Enjoy your afternoon!

I've been retired for a decade. Only the last few months I've stopped having dreams about work. They were almost always about technology having changed so much that I couldn't finish the work on my shift, or similar "showing up half-naked" type dreams. I started to enjoy these almost nightmares when I was able to realize during the dream that I'm retired now and I don't have to endure the stress anymore.

The technology stuff was hard for "our" generation, I think. It was just thrown out at us with no real training. You just opened a program and figured it out. My daughter's generation had classes in high school, so they came out with a general understanding of how things operate. At least a basic guide.

Now, we are back to "just figure it out" pretty much. The last six months of my work life, I couldn't have cared less whether I figured out the new systems or not. I felt like I needed to do it to keep my mind sharp, but it was just getting to the point of "why bother". I understand the stress that you reference. There was constant change to systems that had no basis for real improvement - just someone "deciding" something who didn't actually use the software, etc.

I am glad to not have to "keep up" any more!!!

I'm a registered nurse so I had to keep up or my patients would suffer. Some of the technology and techniques were genuine improvements and some were just expensive things that didn't work which were bought by administrators who had no idea how the job should be done and were just buying something for a kickback. And kickbacks could be substantial. The director of nurses who signed off on the new medication dispensing system got a beach house in the Bahamas.

Lucid dreaming is where you know your dreaming and you can either watch the dreams like a movie or you can interact with the dream. I've been retired for 22 years from the AF and I still have dreams about being in the AF. Most of them center around my getting ready for a PCS (permanent change of station) and realizing I haven't completed all the base out-processing requirements. I realize it's a dream and it just disappears.

I have ever come. But I don't know if it is true lucid dreaming because I didn't have complete control over the narrative. I could just realize that I'm retired and walk away from the situation in the dream, but I don't think that I could have flown out the window or even had meaningful interaction with other characters in the dream. I certainly did feel better when I woke up though.

I need to learn more about that. I think I do it frequently.

I was a workaholic and after the first month, which seemed like a vacation, I found I liked retirement much better than working. I slowly got involved with other things and made sure I was doing what I wanted to do rather than what others wanted me to do.

The key, I figured out, was my retirement belonged to me and no one else. For the record, I'm single and love not being tied down with a family or other responsibilities. For those with a family, prioritize yourself first so you can prioritize your family's needs.

When I actually retired, I've had the pretty much expected and anticipated (based on what I've read) thoughts that "this is the end". I've had to mind battle that, and I think it's getting better the further I get into the actual retirement. I am trying to work on "me" a lot more these days and that feels pretty good.

Wishing you continued happiness...

Coming up on 7 years here.
And, I'm loving not having to get on airplanes anymore. Seven years & still no desire to go anywhere.

But I'm not getting on airplanes these days for an entirely different reason!!! LOL Mainly safety.

I'm not much of a traveler, I'm sad to say. I like my little corner of the world that I've created for me.

When I retired, I donated my frequent flyer miles to the Make A Wish Foundation.
I don't recall the other airlines, but my United miles were something over 2.5 million.
I worked in 41 countries outside the US. 7 counties in Asia, Australia, 7 in South America and so on, a bunch in Europe.
I actually took one Magellan flight. Chicago to Athens; next morning I flew to Mumbai; it was a follow-up trip so only a day & a half; a customer wanted help/review of a phase stability issue at the Far East R&D center in Bangkok; a day & a half later, I flew to Tokyo to change planes to get home. East, east, east, east, & east. I went all the way around on a single trip!
One of my motivations to retire (other than financial security being in place) was to quit traveling.

Kudos for donating to Make A Wish. That was a sweet thing to do. I don't blame you for wanting to stay put now!

...41 countries in my time. Been in something like 10 time zones.
I've boarded a plane around 1,300 times.
Funny Story:
Several months back, my wife says "Maybe we should go to Italy before we get too old." She wants Italy because I know just enough of the language that we could steer away from the beaten path.)
I told her first "Something you might have mentioned before I donated enough miles to get a flight to the moon!"
Later, I looked it up. 125,000 miles & a $120 service fee is a 1st class ticket to Rome & back. For $240, we could have gone 1st class!
And, when one travels as much as I do (plus company policy on int'l flights), one doesn't fly coach. So, I'm used to sitting up front.
With the pets, a 1st class ticket, plus boarding beasties is awfully steep. And, I ain't flying coach on a 10.5 hour flight!

That's pretty much what I was my entire work life. Always having to walk on egg shells, etc. to keep someone in authority happy.

It's been nice to let go of that!

But I know it's true. Gotta pack what we can into those 20 years!

I had a good situation for many years of my work life, but the owner of the business retired and it closed. I needed a few more years to get to retirement age, and I just had little "shit" jobs to get me to that point. Those last years were challenging, and I am happy to have that portion of my life behind me!

Hope you are well and happy!