Finding Retirement Activities, Hobbies, and Interests That Are Fulfilling
Life shifts after we retired. This is the time for someone to be free from necessities to go working for living, raising family, and some activities that we dislike to do. But this is can be also a time of boredom, uselessness, and slowing your life’s pace. Either way, the way we feel or behave after we retire is much more depend on what retirement activities and hobbies we want to do on that particular time.
For some people, retirement time is about creating a new retirement possibility. With so many retirement opportunities, many people feel lost and don’t know where to start after they entered retirement. Here’s a simple exercise to help figure out what a “meaningful activity” would look like. This will help you to choose what your preferred retirement hobbies, interests, and activities.
Start by taking 8-12 pieces of paper and remember of any activities and hobbies which you have felt engaged and was meaningful. You enjoyed what your were doing, but felt challenged. You were proud of the results when it was complete. These are activities where you lost all sense of time. Think of work, back to school, extra curricular activities, hobbies work, home, community, or church. Write them down, and then answer the following five questions for each activity.
Jeff recently retired and took on an activity most people never dream of. He’s building a plane from scratch. When he answered the following questions, it is the ultimate thing that he wanted. Your activities may not be as involved, but the important thing is how you felt when you were engaged.
What five or six traits did I get to use while engaged in this activity?
For example, Jeff, who listed building a plane as one of his activities, wrote that this activity allowed him to be methodical, practical, analytical, handy and observant.
What passions/interests did the activity meet?
For Jeff, it was working with his hands, risk-taking, being outdoors, solving complex problems, and the feeling of adventure.
What skills/talents did you get to use?
Jeff listed hand-eye coordination, physical strength, synthesizing information, visualizing, planning, and organizing.
What goals/purpose did the activity have?
Jeff’s goal was to build a plane he could fly.
What was the goal of the experience?
For Jeff, it was the workmanship of creating a tangible product and creative expression.
Once all of the questions are answered, go through the list of by one and look at what the repetitive themes are in the different activities. This should give you some idea about what retirement activities or retirement hobbies you enjoy. By identifying the traits, skills, interests, and values that matter, retirees will be closer to discovering retirement activities and retirement hobbies that not only bring them pleasure, but feed their soul as well. This is the methodical way to choose activities or hobbies and may influences your retirement decision.
Keeping busy with bunch of retirement hobby and actitivities is a great idea after retirement, provided you are doing what you want to do and your retirement activities are meaningful and fulfilling. If you keep busy simply to be busy, you are falling for the myth. Some people think that if they stay busy enough, their retirement problems will go away and they will use the most effective of retirement. Others stay busy doing meaningless chores to anesthetize themselves against thoughts of aging or living alone.