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I’m Retired!!

Welcome everyone! Glad to see you again!

As I write this, I have just completed my actual first week of retirement! Exciting, and slightly surreal that it finally came to pass!

In my August 25 post, I talked about what I wanted my first real retirement day to look like! Well, it turned out PRETTY much as I hoped! I wanted to take a walk with my husband and crazy dog in our neighborhood…however, rain/snow and rural dirt roads are not a good mix, and I was afraid my shoes would each weight 50 pounds when I got back home with mud on them, so no walking that day or that week…BUT otherwise, the first day was a lovely freedom celebration! We went to the coffee shop, I had my green tea latte, worked on my Tuesday upcoming Bible study lesson, talked to my husband, chatted with the owners of the shop and had a lovely time!

I also asked my husband to start my personal training, and using a program from the Total Gym, he started me on my way! I am doing 6 days a week on that, with a different set of exercises every day, demonstrated by my sweet hubby, and that is going well! In fact, I just finished my day 6 routine!

I did have some interesting observations about myself this first retirement week, though! First is that, on about Wednesday evening, a fleeting thought crossed my mind that, well, my week off is more than half over, make the best of it, back to work next week! Then, WAIT, this isn’t vacation, it’s retirement! LOL! Also, one day I tried to use my work login for my home computer! OY! Old habits apparently die hard!

I am still a list maker because, as I have told you earlier, I still have a need for some structure, and I have some specific things I still need/want to accomplish. I noticed I started my first list with “Monday” – then, like most “to do” lists, at least for me, not everything gets accomplished on that one day and I felt a bit of angst about what didn’t get done. THEN I realized, I don’t HAVE TO DO IT ALL on Monday! THAT was a very freeing thought!

A very enjoyable first retirement week for me! Things accomplished, things done on a whim and some down time! I like it!

I read an article this week that I downloaded entitled “19 TIPS FOR AN AMAZING ‘RETIREMENT LIFE’” by Cyn Meyer, Founder of Second Wind Movement (http://secondwindmovement.com/about-cyn-2/). I will likely discuss some of that in later blogs because it was very interesting and follows some of what my blog is all about. But I believe the overarching theme of the article is that we need to prepare to live our retirement years (AND, as per my earlier blogs, ALL of our life), “with intention.” I think you might enjoy checking out this website!

Take care…I hope you are working on your lists (see my earliest blogs if you aren’t sure what that means) and preparing to live your life both NOW and in your retirement with joy, purpose and intention!

Have a great day!
Mary

Retirement notebook ideas!

Welcome back! I hope you all got your notebook or other way to record your retirement ideas, and that you got to have an actual brainstorming session with yourself to get it really rolling! Did you have fun? Did you start to feel some excitement? I hope so, because I know I sure did! If not, put it on your schedule – you will be glad you did!

Keep that notebook handy and continue to add to it…now that those wheels are greased, the ideas will continue to flow – no more “up in smoke” ideas for you!

My notebook contained ideas like this blog, as I told you, plus:

• individual topics for blogs
• see my grandkids more and travel more (yes, I did put in those generic ones, too)
• learn more about using essential oils
• research ways to get and stay healthier so that I can really enjoy my retirement
• take some classes I would like to take (and not have to worry about tests and grades if I don’t want to!)
• more in-depth personal Bible Study than I have time for right now
• participate with my husband Dave in his workout routines and ask him to be my personal coach (he loves working out…not my favorite, BUT I know I need to and we are lucky enough to have some equipment at our house, but we could also go to the city recreation center).

And, on and on…I don’t want to make my ideas yours, but I do want to help you realize the freedom to flow from one idea to the other…they don’t have to be connected…and you won’t have to do any or all of these every day! If you change your mind when you actually retire and say, “What was I thinking!?” then toss it! This truly is “your way”!

So continue on with your list…I hope my partial list above gets your creative juices flowing to help you with YOUR list.

ON to more fun stuff next time! Take care!

Mary

Begin your retirement preparation journey with me!

HI everyone! Thanks for joining me again! I am hoping that means you are looking forward to starting YOUR retirement preparation journey…or continuing your actual retirement leg of your journey…or just wanting to find out want this crazy lady has to say! LOL! Whatever the reason, WELCOME BACK!

When I started to realize that retirement preparation was a journey, I tried to find some good resources to help me…cause that is what I do. I did find a few good books, and I have the ones I especially liked named below if you are interested.

But they mainly made me thirst for more…brought up the questions in my mind they were meant to bring up…and made me realize I didn’t have the answers I really wanted yet. They made me think about the fact that I really should have some sort of idea of “what’s next?” It’s all great to wake up your first morning of being retired, linger over coffee, but really, there are just so many cups of coffee you can drink before you wonder “what do I do now?”

I wanted to get ahead of that curve…I wanted to have some specific things I knew I wanted to do…and I don’t mean “travel more”, or “see my grandkids more”, or those kinds of generalities. All of those are true…in fact, yes, I DO want to see my grandkids more, and even though I am not retired yet, I DO travel at least couple of times a year and would like a couple more times per year; in fact, I am writing this blog in Roatan while my husband scuba dives! (No I don’t dive…long story…my head underwater is just not a good thing for me! But, I am looking over a lovely ocean with a cool tropical breeze! Can’t beat that!)

Anyway, my first retirement-preparation idea was to keep a notebook handy for those miscellaneous times something popped into my head and I said, “I would really like to do that when I retire!” Those are cool moments…but if you are like me, the next day when I try to recapture that great idea, it is gone in a puff of smoke…sigh…and I still don’t know what I want to do when I retire. OY!

So, I got myself a little notebook. I decided to recapture as much as I could recall of previous “up in smoke” ideas immediately, then just have a half hour brainstorming session specifically on the question of “What do I want to do when I retire?” It was SOOOOO fun! I wrote down about 35 numbered ideas in about a 30 minute timespan! None of them, mind you, were things that I would do every day, but were just sort of “bucket list” things I wanted to do, both big and small.

One of my ideas was writing this blog…because I really felt like I couldn’t be the only one who didn’t want to wake up on my first day of retirement and say “Now what?”

So, get yourself a little notebook, schedule yourself a 30 minute (or more!) brainstorming session, and set yourself free! This notebook does not COMMIT you to anything! It’s really a lot of fun! Write down anything…this is just for you! Share it with someone only if you want to!!! If you aren’t really a writer like me, find a way to capture your ideas that will work for you…we all have these ideas and they are too powerful to go up in smoke!

We’ll talk more about your list next time…See you then!

Mary

As promised, here are a few books I have read that got my brainstorming juices flowing!  Enjoy!

Don’t Retire, Rewire by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners
How to Retire Happy – The 12 most important decisions you must make before you retire by Stan Hinden
Retire Smart, Retire Happy – Finding Your True Path in Life by Nancy K. Schlossberg

Introducing…Retire with Joy and Purpose!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my page retirewithjoyandpurpose.com!

I hope the website name itself tells my goal, but I wanted to introduce myself and where I am on this retirement journey. I also want to tell you my purpose in writing this. I hope you enjoy the ride!

My name is Mary Powell… I guess that is important to know WHO I am first! Also, in the interest of letting you know right up front, this blog is NOT about the financial part of retiring. I don’t have that expertise, and I strongly recommend you talk to a financial planner to make sure you have all of your ducks in a row (or AT LEAST in the same pond!).  At some point I may have some guest bloggers who can address that, but it definitely won’t be me talking about money!

Secondly, no, I am actually NOT retired yet! Shocked? Wondering how I can write this, then? LOL! (i.e. laughing out loud!) Well, let me tell you about that!

My husband Dave and I have been looking toward our retirement future with great anticipation! About 5 years ago, we started to think about the “when” instead of the “pie in the sky” that it had been before that. We had a financial planner and felt the money part would be OK, (though I must admit we didn’t really see the “how” of that and have “assurance” of that till about a year ago….a future blog topic, not in money detail, though as discussed above). But now, it was time to start really thinking about it…for REAL.

My first realization as I began to think about this, is that it wasn’t all about the practical “when,” though that is important. What I have realized is that getting ready to retire is a journey! It isn’t (or at least, in my opinion, it is BEST if it isn’t) an instantaneous decision without planning for the “what next.” When I actually DO retire (hopefully later this year), I expect that to be a totally NEW LEG of the journey!

The “what next” is what this blog is about… and making sure your “what next” gives you joy and purpose in your retirement years! You worked hard for it…now, whatever form it takes (and there are MANY forms, whatever YOU want or whatever you can do), it’s time to enjoy it!

I wish you each a fun journey along with me! Let’s go!

See you next time…can’t wait!

Mary