By Boyd Lemon / Guest constributor
In an earlier column I told you about how I found my life’s passion — writing — in retirement. It is important to have a passion to pursue when you are retired. This column suggests why it is important and how to go about it. Many people who give no thought to what they are going to do in retirement think that they finally will be able to get to those projects around the house they had been putting off for years — building that barbeque in the patio or redecorating the house. Six months later the projects are completed and they have nothing left to do. Or, they think, now I can play golf everyday. They don’t realize that once they can play every day, golf is not as enjoyable as it was when they could play only on Sunday mornings.
Most people about to retire prepared for many years for their life’s occupation or profession, but when their career is almost over, they spend little time or effort preparing for the rest of their lives, which today may, hopefully will, be almost as many years as they worked.
Timing is important. You should be considering what to do during retirement long before you actually retire. Keep an open mind. Don’t make a decision until it’s time to make it. If you do and then close your mind to other possibilities, you will be using less than the most recent information available.
Perhaps the most important preparation is to discover a passion, unless you already have one that you want to pursue in retirement. I didn’t. Your passion might be related to your lifelong work, but now you don’t have to earn money doing it. Or it could be totally different. The possibilities are endless — volunteering for any number of causes that you are passionate about, acting in local plays, making movies, painting, woodworking, photography, bird watching, quilting, playing music, another job that you always wanted to do — bartender, chef, yoga instructor. Whatever you choose doesn’t have to be one thing, and you can do it part time. Potentially, you have a whole new life ahead of you, and this time you get to choose it, having had decades of adult experience to guide you.
If you don’t like the term passion, if it sounds too new age or melodramatic to you, call it your overriding purpose. You call it what you want, but I am going to use the term, “passion,” because it best describes what I feel about my own passion, writing.
Something artistic is rewarding for many people, but most people couldn’t earn a living in the arts. In retirement you don’t have to. Get out that old guitar and take some lessons; you could start a band. You could paint, even learn how if you have never painted. I considered volunteering to work for an environmental or animal cause, free legal work for the poor, working for the local food bank, full time traveling, starting a restaurant, teaching and more, but none of those things felt right.
In 2005, when I was still working more than half time, I wrote a law book. Although I immensely enjoyed the writing and publishing process, I wanted to try writing something unrelated to law. The important thing I decided was to try out things before I retired. I struck out in search of my passion. If you haven’t found yours, start searching for it before you retire. If you have already retired and don’t have a passion, start searching now. Be open to anything and become aware of all that is out there, but don’t expect your passion just to magically appear. I’ll discuss in detail how to find your passion in Step 3.
No matter how much you have prepared, adjustment will still be necessary. Some things will not work out as well as you expected. There will be gaps and bumps and struggles. Seamless life transitions, such as, marriage, career change, or moving across the country are rare. The transition to retirement is no different. Don’t be fooled by the popular belief that retirement is all fun, pleasure and serenity. Like anything else worthwhile, you have to work on it to make it happen successfully.
Here are some things to do to help you find your passion:
- Give it a lot of thought. It’s worth it. Ask yourself: what do you often look up on Google or in an encyclopedia? What in the newspaper interests you? What do you want to learn more about?
- What do you talk about a lot?
- Go to a bookstore. Do you gravitate toward any particular sections.
- What are you good at? What comes easily to you?
- Think of examples of great work you have done in the past.
- What were you doing during a time in your life when you felt most creative?
- Buy or borrow from a library books on different activities, and see if any of them interest you. Do searches on Google.
- Learn new activities. Go places you have never been. Don’t sit around watching a lot of television.
- Don’t be impatient. Be persistent. Don’t let other things get in the way of your search. You must be active in your search. Get out and do things and meet people.
- When you find your passion or your purpose, you will know it. There will be no doubt that it is right for you. If you have doubt, unless it passes quickly, keep searching.
— Boyd Lemon is a retired lawyer, who re-invented himself as a writer, living in Ventura. He recently returned from a year in France and Italy. His memoir, “Digging Deep: A Writer Uncovers His Marriages,” has just been published. It is about his journey to understand his role in the destruction of his three marriages. He believes it will help others to deal with their own relationship issues. Excerpts are on his website, http://www.BoydLemon-Writer.com