5 tips for reinventing your life in retirement
Retirement can be the ideal time for a change of direction in your life. So in order to make your retirement years the most fulfilling in your life, here we have five handy hints for setting your life up exactly the way you want.
1. Let it go
For many of us, our job or career was our identity. So when retirement approaches, it can be easy to think that we will lose our sense of self.
Instead of letting things spiral out of control in your mind, consider just letting go of the idea of your job and yourself being one and the same.
What are you interested in? What are you good at? How do you want to spend your time, and with whom? Now is the time to thinking about what you really want to be doing, and just do it.
2. Find your niche
Many people use the word passion when it comes to determining what you want to do in retirement. In fact, it can be too much pressure to think of one specific thing that gets your creative juices flowing.
A more comfortable way for many of us to find what we want to do with our retirement years is to just try a few things on for size, and see what fits.
If you are not great at painting, but have always been interested – sign up to an art class and you might unlock some creativity. If you enjoy helping others – try volunteering once a week and see if you meet some nice people. If you’re not sure what to do, but want to do something – start a walking group with your neighbours.
Anything that gets you out of the house and meeting new people is a great place to start.
3. Turn fears into fun
Once you reach retirement age, hopefully you will be done with worrying about what others think of you. Now is the time to think about what challenges you (or even what scares you) and determine whether you are ready to conquer it once and for all.
Just because you’ve never done salsa dancing (or you have two left feet) doesn’t mean you won’t love it. So you never finished that degree – why not finish it now?
Don’t let age or circumstance dictate what you can and cannot do – forge your own path.
4. Look to the past for inspiration
Think back to your childhood. What were the things that you did that you really loved doing? What was it that took your mind off to a happy place where time stood still?
So often it is these things that can give you an insight into what you really should be doing with your time. For many of us, these ideas were dismissed in favour of something more practical when it came to career choices.
But now that the practical considerations can be somewhat ignored, think about what really puts you in a positive frame of mind.
Perhaps you loved cooking or playing pretend kitchens – could you take part in (or even run) a baking class? Did you love writing stories – maybe now is the time to get cracking with that novel.
5. Know that you are worth the investment
If you’re worried that you’re too old, or that it’s too late to make changes to your life – think again.
If you are willing to invest time and money in a new direction for your life, you could be enjoying the benefits for the next ten, twenty, or even thirty years.
For many of us the idea of going back to basics and learning a new skill means being “the new kid” or a beginner again, which can be challenging. But by re-framing this as an opportunity rather than something to be scared of, you can start seeing the investment in yourself as the best thing you could ever do.
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