Don't Just Retire.....REFIRE!!
"Life is not a Destination, it's a Journey!" spoken by Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are so many quotes from famous and not so famous people who believe that Life should be an ongoing learning experience for all of our days. Ron and I believe that, as well. We also believe in REFIRING our experiences from time to time in our retirement.
Since retiring, Ron’s continued to learn by starting new businesses and building things for our homes. Those projects are ALWAYS learning experiences.
I have always continued to take classes in all sorts of subject matter. In fact, over the years, Ron has questioned me about why I need to take another art class, since I’ve been taking them for many, many years. The answer is really 2-fold. First, I enjoy learning something new and secondly, you can never know everything about ANY subject.
Try Something New!!
Wayne Dyer, best selling author & lecturer, once wrote, “Don’t die with your music still in you”.
This could apply to many of us who, as we have gotten older and retired, are thinking, “What now?”. Just because we’ve retired from our former jobs, doesn’t mean we’ve retired from life and have to give up on the dreams we once had. This is the perfect time of our lives to resurrect those dreams and bring them to fruition or to dream some entirely new dreams.
George Elliot said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been”.
Lifelong learning is something we all should strive for, as the mind needs to be exercised as much (or more?) than the body.
“If you develop a passion for learning, your mind will never quit growing”. Annon.
To quote M. Gandhi “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever!”
What can You Do?
Have you always wanted to be in the medical field? Maybe, now’s the time to learn a new skill or volunteer at a Doctor’s office or hospital or nursing home.
Do you enjoy reading? How about becoming a reading coach for a middle or elementary school? At the very least you could join or even start a book club for other like-minded people.
Were you in business and miss it? You could become a mentor to young entrepreneurs or new business owners. Anyone in that situation could use a mentor or at least a “sounding board”. We know that from experience.
Do you have a skill like sewing, painting, playing the piano or other instrument? Become a teacher. You can pick up a little extra cash or just share that skill for free to motivate others.
You can certainly take up gardening, which lots of seniors do, but you could take it one step further and become an “expert” at some particular phase of it. This could be working with certain plants like succulents or cactus. Or you could become an expert at creating garden decorations, bonsai or hypertufa.
And certainly, if you’re at all “tech savvy”, you have a skill that would be “golden” in a retirement community. We can all use that kind of help
What have we done ?
We’ve Refired in our retirement years several times, just to keep things interesting. In the 12 or 13 years since we retired, we’ve tried a little bit of lots of things.
Ron had a driveway and house painting business for several years until he decided he’d had enough of ladders. He did some marketing for a couple of years for our sons’ business just to keep his hand in something business related. Now, he’s back to projects around here (he’s redoing our deck at present).
Me, I started this blog on my ????birthday. I often say that I did it just to see if my brain still worked. I found out it does but not at the same speed it once did. In truth, though I’ve leaned SOOO much in the last year and a half, I still consider myself technically challenged.
We send out a Newsletter once a month and I’ve gotten lots of great responses, even from some of our grandchildren. They seem to think it’s great that I’m still learning and trying to grow. I agree and it surely fills my days with new interests.
And, of course, I’m still teaching acrylic painting classes 2 days a week which keeps me busy prepping for them. I do love it all so I’ll just keep plugging away at this blog and all that entails.
And Finally.....
Henry Ford once said ” Anyone who stops learning is old at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning, stays Young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young”
So hang in there and REFIRE, don’t just retire!!
Rita & Ron