The Power of Time

The retirement date looms on the horizon and you can’t wait for the big day. Life at work is no longer fun and there are days when you feel the stress may kill you. The day arrives, you celebrate with your colleagues and you walk out of the door. Maybe you even received a “gold watch”?

This is the world of how most people still see retirement. They dream of many things they will do to fill their time. Holidays, fixing up the house and having time to visit friends and use their pensioners card at the local restaurant or retailer.

After about 6 months some of the lustre wears off. You may be struggling to get up. Feel that you have no purpose. Realise that most of your friends and family are still working and don’t have time to fill your day. The urgent tasks from home are complete and now what?

I am a great believer in making time either for a sabbatical or at the beginning of retirement for a person to have time to rest, enjoy time to discover what the future may hold and to discover who they are in this season of life. In most cases we all need a structured plan to manage this process so that we don’t spiral downwards.

I watched this great TED video in December and it was a great lesson around down time but with intent and purpose for the next season. Here is a link to the talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off

This is what he speaks about in the talk. Down time should be structured as creative time to grow, learn and engage. Imagine your old school timetable broken up into blocks every day with different subjects. Here add in different activities. It does not need to be rigid but without a plan we tend to fall into old ways and do not learn or grow.

Maybe just work on the six kinds of leisure that you would like to pursue in this season. These are social, spectator, physical, creative, solitary and personal development. Add a few ideas to each category and then pursue these. You can also add new networks you may want to join, connections you want to make where you may want to volunteer and ideas around second career options. Each timetable will look different as we are all unique and working on our dream season.

After a few weeks you will notice a richer fuller life with more purpose. This will catapult you into the next season. Remember like marriage it is not so much about the day but the life beyond the day.

Enjoy your legacy season