Hobbies
Thinking about how you will choose to spend your time in retirement has its own set of challenges. For one thing, as you plan the retirement stage of your life you still need to attend to the daily detritus of life: paying bills, making medical appointments (and those will take up more and more of your calendar as time marches on), going to the grocery store, making the beds, etc. And yet, you savor the prospect of long open hours awaiting you to fill however you choose.
Scheduling Your Time
It is true that in retirement, time will be your greatest resource for accomplishing so much of what has been deferred. In order to keep this precious gift of time from being frittered away, you will want to schedule your hobby time, framing it with beginning and endpoints. You might actually make appointments with yourself. If you are planning on taking an oil painting class on Wednesday mornings at the local community ed center, why not make Thursday mornings your time to practice what you have learned?
Keeping a routine in retirement is key to keeping your life focused. Hobbies can play an important role in keeping you active, alert, and productive. Your hobbies can enrich your life by leading you to interaction with others in the role of either student or teacher using the skills you have acquired.
Benefits of Hobbies
Your hobby has no doubt brought you in contact with others who share your interest. It may have brought you to parts of the country you might not otherwise have visited, be it an antique show in Albuquerque or a NAS-CAR race in Nashua. Hobbies can provide an escape from stress in your high-pressure work years. On the flip side, they can put you outside of your comfort zone by opening doors to new experiences. The key thing is to find activities that intrigue you, test your mettle, and develop talents you may not have realized you possess.
Discovering New Hobbies
Perhaps there is a secret part of you that actually is sick of your current crop of pastimes, and the thought of needlepointing for the next three decades is enough to send you screaming to the nearest Harley-Davidson dealership. Fear not; you can go to the World Wide Web and find all sorts of information on everything from cooking to caving. The deeper you become involved in an area, the more you will discover the richness of its function in life. A few Web sites to gather introductory information on a range of hobbies include the following:
www.onelang.com www.about.com/hobbies www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Hobbies
If you and your spouse will be wrapping up work around the same time, you might want to identify a new hobby or pastime you could explore together, such as playing golf or taking pottery classes. You will definitely want to maintain time to pursue your individual interests, but retirement may offer you a chance to discover something completely new to enjoy with your partner.
