For some people, the age of retirement is the long-awaited starting point of meaning, a moment when they can cease spending hours working for a company and instead start choosing to spend their days as they like.
For others, the thought of retirement may bring unease. Routines and jobs can provide structure and meaning, and suddenly ceasing decades of work may bring sadness or feelings of meaninglessness.
Whether you’re eagerly anticipating retirement or looking for new ways to find meaning in your daily life, here are some things to consider as you're planning the golden years ahead.
Part of the anticipation of retirement is not having to feel confined to that nine-to-five daily routine. While that should certainly be celebrated, daily routines actually bring meaning to people’s lives, even if they can come with their own boredom or mundanity.
That’s why it’s important to create a daily routine that includes the things you care about, whether it’s a daily phone call with your family, a walk in your local park, or creating a meal that you can look forward to.
Some people in retirement like to turn to volunteering opportunities as ways to find meaning. Service can be beneficial not just to your community, but to yourself: research has found that people who participate in service find meaning in their lives, build a healthy lifestyle, and also live longer!
You can use websites like VolunteerMatch or Create the Good to find volunteer opportunities that fit your interests, schedule, and routine.
Loneliness can be a challenge in retirement because you don’t get to see people you’d normally expect to every day at work. But connections with people are critical to our health, especially the health of older adults.
Everyone has different amounts of time they prefer to spend connecting with people, especially depending on if they’re introverts or extroverts, but create a schedule that feels right for you. Perhaps it’s a daily phone call with a friend or a weekly catch up with your family. You could join a monthly book club or walking groups in the neighborhood. Even if people in these new groups may be strangers at first, you’ll likely soon build new friends that will be incredibly valuable in this new life chapter.
Approaching retirement age also means our bodies have different needs. Talk to your doctor and make sure your health care plan is best suited to your current health needs.
Finding meaning will go a long way toward keeping you healthy, but there are other important steps to take as well. Exercise to keep your muscles strong and your heart healthy. Balancing and flexibility exercises are also an important part of your retirement routine, according to USA Today.
Contact a Sea Mountain Life & Health Insurance Specialist to talk through any insurance questions you might have.
