Follow Your Retirement Dreams

Baby Boomers, Grandpas and Retirees, we all find ourselves with the true blessing of more time to do what we’ve always wanted to do!  What do we want to do with this time?  I’m re-inventing myself as what I call a Free Range Explorer.

Until now,  I’ve always been a right brain creative type in left brain logical type jobs and careers.  I did what I had to do to support my wife and children.  No regrets, it is what it is and it’s all good! We all turned out pretty well.

Now, my life has changed dramatically for the better.  I’ve decided to focus my time on things I love.  Here are the 6 Great Activities For Retirement that I enjoy.  There are Many More, but these make me happy and are on top of my list.

They aren’t in order of preference, just random.

Photography – I remember my Dad taking lots of photos while on our “summer trips”. It was something he enjoyed along with the “slide shows” we all endeared after we got home.  Reliving those memories got me interested enough to get a 35mm SLR(I’m dating myself) and take a few photography classes during school.  My interest continued and is still strong today.  Now I have the time to take outings and trips and get more serious about making photographs.  Our house is filled with various 8×10 and 16×20 museum quality canvas prints of scenes from the South of France, Amsterdam. Norway, England and all over America and of course, children and grandchildren. It’s nice to have part of “me” hanging on the wall to enjoy.

Travel – Along with photography, my Dad taught me the love a worldwide travel when I was young.  So much so, that I’ve had careers with an international airline and elite travel agency. Now we travel to visit our children who are spread out.  And we travel mostly America and Europe learning from the locals, and experiencing their sites, nature and cuisine.

Cooking – Cooking is fun and satisfying and has a nice reward at the end, Eating!  For fun, get your kids and grand kids involved with the planning, preparation, cooking and serving, and, oh yeah, the eating.  This makes for a nice bonding time and they might even learn something about getting along, planning and life.  I plan on adding Cooking classes in some of the cities I visit.

Writing – Now that you have more time in retirement, you can write the block buster, all American book.  Write stories for your grand kids. Write your biography. A romance novel,  or a cookbook or a How To book.  Those last 3 happen to be the biggest selling niche’s on Amazon Kindle books.  After all these years you’re probably an expert at something.  Share that knowledge with the world on a blog or ebook.  The options are endless.  If you don’t think you can write a book, outsource it, based on your knowledge, to a professional writer on Fiverr.com for a small fee.  They can make your cover, do all the layout and get it ready for you to upload to Kindle.

Friends and Family – Your friends and family always need your attention and nurturing.  Try finding your roots by studying genealogy. Spend time with your family and friends, do things with them and have fun connecting.  Ride bikes, go to a movie, take a hike, learn a craft, restore an old car, or learn to knit or play cards together or play musical instruments together.  If your relationships are strained, now’s the time to reconnect.  Be the brave one and reach out to them, in the long run they’ll appreciate it.

This is only 6 possibilities out of hundreds.  It might take some time to figure out what is most important to you but it’s worth the effort. Now that I’m moving into retirement I’ve been reinventing myself.  I’ve had to do some deep soul searching.  Even now, I’m still not done.  It will be an evolving mission with lots of change of route a long the way.  That can make life even more exciting.

Thank goodness we have the time and resources (more than ever before) to do what we want and become our best and happiest selves.   So how do you REALLY want to spend your time?  Go ahead, create your dreams and Live Life Well, everyday!

Thanks for stopping by today, John

A Free Range Explorer