Retirem Activity Plan Business Plan
Retirement Activity Plan
HOW TO UTILIZE TIME ONCE RETIRED
The circle = a 24-hour period. How will you use all 24 hours? How much relaxing? Exercising? Chores? Meals? Hobbies? Volunteering?
What else?
SLEEPING = 6 to 9 hours +
EATING = 2 to 3 hours
So, to make this exercise useful, please do the following.
Take a blank piece of paper (if you have a partner in life, each should take a blank piece of paper, not showing their ideas to the other until done. Only then, compare the two charts and discuss similarities and differences.)
This circle that you have drawn is the beginning of a Pie Chart representing 24 hours of any day of Retirement.
As the sample indicates, you can eliminate about half of the circle right away, as we will …show more content…
utilize about half of our normal daily time eating and sleeping.
But the remaining 12 hours?
How will you use your time during those waking hours? I gave a few ideas above, but think carefully about your use of time when it’s all your choosing and capture the activities that will add up to 12 hours. This was not easy for me when I first tried it. But I am glad that I stuck with it and I found that I was more confident than I had thought about how I would spend the days of my Retired life.
Imagine a Back Up Plan
I want to emphasize that the first “dream” that we create will, if implemented in a thoughtful way, launch us into years of enjoyment of our Retirement journey. I suggest that all of us sit back periodically during our journey and appreciate where we came from to get here and how much fun we experience daily. (more about Appreciation in the next chapter)
But, while all this fun will engulf our days and render such good feelings, we also need to be realistic about this truth. Our Retirement journey will have phases of change that can be predicted and counted on. These phases will allow us more and more physical and cognitive limits on what we are able to do with comfort.
Therefore, several back up plans are important to keep “at the ready”.
The phases to which I refer are
these:
We will lose stamina and physical ability over time
We will experience lessening of memory and cognitive capabilities
We will lose others in our inner circle to death
We will experience periods of hospitalization and recovery from the predictable health debilities
Others in our family and inner circle may have needs that will cause us to devote time, energy, and, perhaps, financial support
And so, the list goes.
Let me share a sad example.
During the years that I lived in a Senior Community just outside of Washington, DC, I met quite a variety of older folks who were experiencing varying levels of their Retirement Plans.
One fellow that I met in the condo building where we both lived showed me the value of a back up to our Retirement Plan.
This fellow had been Retired for over 15 years when we met. For several years, he seemed to be alert and fully engaged in his life - always positive and responsive to social engagement, as best I could tell at a distance.
And then, very suddenly, he seemed to change for the worse.
I noticed him sitting in the lobby of our building every single day when I would enter from the near-by garage.
He would look up from his seat on a couch when each neighbor entered the lobby, usually to fetch our mail. His face revealed a deep sadness that I had not seen before. And this look, with his presence in the lobby, became predictable and more and more painful to see.
So, I sat with him on that couch one afternoon and asked him if he was alright.
He told me that he was sitting in the lobby because his apartment had become too depressing.
He shared with me that upon his Retirement, he learned of a degenerative illness that his wife would live with for some years. She told him that she wanted to stay at home with him in their apartment for as long as possible. He told her that his life’s mission would be to become her care giver allowing her to stay at home just a long as possible.
Caring for his ill wife became his Retirement Plan. He took classes in how to best care for her and bought the equipment needed to stay at home (hospital bed, oxygen equipment, and the like). This had given him purpose and pleasure (a labor of love) and that seemed to be all that he required over the next decade and a half.
However, eventually she died at home and not only was the hospital equipment removed from the apartment, his purposeful Retirement Plan was no longer workable.
As we talked that afternoon, he told me that even though he knew that she would die at some point, he did not create a backup plan to sustain his remaining years. He felt lost, totally alone, and without purpose. He even said to me, “I just don’t know why I should get up each morning. I can’t think of a good reason…”
I invited him to my apartment for several visits and conversation over coffee.
During these talks, we kicked around many ideas about what he might do as a new Retirement Plan.
He had Retired but he was still a lawyer and a member-emeritus of the State Bar. He seemed to have a strong feeling for and closeness to so many of our fellow seniors who were experiencing the same kinds of disconnect that he felt, some much worse. So many of these folks lived in our very senior community.
At my suggestion, he renewed his law license and set up a very part time practice at the community’s activity center where he offered advice (nearly for free) to other seniors regarding their estates, wills, trusts, and the like.
He also started and led small group support meetings for seniors who had lost their life partner. This became a very popular activity at the senior center and he told me that he took immense joy from the process.
Well, this is the process of establishing a backup plan that I am encouraging here.
For myself, I recognize that my health will someday limit my mobility and my memory will be challenged. This is based on the known ailments that have been diagnosed and are, by nature, degenerative.
So, I have researched and put into writing several backup plans that I will be able to accomplish at each stage.
First, I have volunteered to go to the local Veterans Center in my town where I will work with young Vets who are preparing for the job market. I will review their resumes and help them prepare to interview in our job market. I spent nearly 40 years in Human Resources functions, so, who better.
I also walked the route from the front of the Veterans Center entrance to the rooms where I will donate my time. I have measured for accessibility once I am in a wheel chair or mobility scooter. Of course, having reviewed the mobility access was already considered by the Center staff for the sake of the Veteran clients.
I also met with the local police department to establish the rules and permissions to make my way to the Center in my scooter where sidewalks are non-existent.
As for my memory challenge, yet to come, I have put labels on each of my kitchen cabinets to indicate what glasses, plates, pots, and pans are in each. Someday I know that I won’t remember these things. Now I am ready.
Also, I have used the label maker to affix to the counters of my bathroom sink top. These spell out the different medications that are to be taken at specific times and intervals. Again, I can take my medications now with relative ease, but I know that degeneration of cognition is coming and I want to be prepared.
All of this will allow me to live on my own for many more years and that is my Retirement Plan.
I spend my days now writing at my computer (what fun!), as right now is the case. And, a few of times a month, someone drives me a couple of hours to deliver lectures to groups at government agencies and a university.
And, of course, I plan some relaxation time at the local seniors’ indoor pool where I can exercise and sit and read.
Well, this is the life that I choose. I am delighted to embrace every single day.
What will your life be like, both originally in Retirement, and your backups?
HOW TO UTILIZE TIME ONCE RETIRED
The circle = a 24-hour period. How will you use all 24 hours? How much relaxing? Exercising? Chores? Meals? Hobbies? Volunteering?
What else?
SLEEPING = 6 to 9 hours +
EATING = 2 to 3 hours
So, to make this exercise useful, please do the following.
Take a blank piece of paper (if you have a partner in life, each should take a blank piece of paper, not showing their ideas to the other until done. Only then, compare the two charts and discuss similarities and differences.)
This circle that you have drawn is the beginning of a Pie Chart representing 24 hours of any day of Retirement.
As the sample indicates, you can eliminate about half of the circle right away, as we will …show more content…
utilize about half of our normal daily time eating and sleeping.
But the remaining 12 hours?
How will you use your time during those waking hours? I gave a few ideas above, but think carefully about your use of time when it’s all your choosing and capture the activities that will add up to 12 hours. This was not easy for me when I first tried it. But I am glad that I stuck with it and I found that I was more confident than I had thought about how I would spend the days of my Retired life.
Imagine a Back Up Plan
I want to emphasize that the first “dream” that we create will, if implemented in a thoughtful way, launch us into years of enjoyment of our Retirement journey. I suggest that all of us sit back periodically during our journey and appreciate where we came from to get here and how much fun we experience daily. (more about Appreciation in the next chapter)
But, while all this fun will engulf our days and render such good feelings, we also need to be realistic about this truth. Our Retirement journey will have phases of change that can be predicted and counted on. These phases will allow us more and more physical and cognitive limits on what we are able to do with comfort.
Therefore, several back up plans are important to keep “at the ready”.
The phases to which I refer are
these:
We will lose stamina and physical ability over time
We will experience lessening of memory and cognitive capabilities
We will lose others in our inner circle to death
We will experience periods of hospitalization and recovery from the predictable health debilities
Others in our family and inner circle may have needs that will cause us to devote time, energy, and, perhaps, financial support
And so, the list goes.
Let me share a sad example.
During the years that I lived in a Senior Community just outside of Washington, DC, I met quite a variety of older folks who were experiencing varying levels of their Retirement Plans.
One fellow that I met in the condo building where we both lived showed me the value of a back up to our Retirement Plan.
This fellow had been Retired for over 15 years when we met. For several years, he seemed to be alert and fully engaged in his life - always positive and responsive to social engagement, as best I could tell at a distance.
And then, very suddenly, he seemed to change for the worse.
I noticed him sitting in the lobby of our building every single day when I would enter from the near-by garage.
He would look up from his seat on a couch when each neighbor entered the lobby, usually to fetch our mail. His face revealed a deep sadness that I had not seen before. And this look, with his presence in the lobby, became predictable and more and more painful to see.
So, I sat with him on that couch one afternoon and asked him if he was alright.
He told me that he was sitting in the lobby because his apartment had become too depressing.
He shared with me that upon his Retirement, he learned of a degenerative illness that his wife would live with for some years. She told him that she wanted to stay at home with him in their apartment for as long as possible. He told her that his life’s mission would be to become her care giver allowing her to stay at home just a long as possible.
Caring for his ill wife became his Retirement Plan. He took classes in how to best care for her and bought the equipment needed to stay at home (hospital bed, oxygen equipment, and the like). This had given him purpose and pleasure (a labor of love) and that seemed to be all that he required over the next decade and a half.
However, eventually she died at home and not only was the hospital equipment removed from the apartment, his purposeful Retirement Plan was no longer workable.
As we talked that afternoon, he told me that even though he knew that she would die at some point, he did not create a backup plan to sustain his remaining years. He felt lost, totally alone, and without purpose. He even said to me, “I just don’t know why I should get up each morning. I can’t think of a good reason…”
I invited him to my apartment for several visits and conversation over coffee.
During these talks, we kicked around many ideas about what he might do as a new Retirement Plan.
He had Retired but he was still a lawyer and a member-emeritus of the State Bar. He seemed to have a strong feeling for and closeness to so many of our fellow seniors who were experiencing the same kinds of disconnect that he felt, some much worse. So many of these folks lived in our very senior community.
At my suggestion, he renewed his law license and set up a very part time practice at the community’s activity center where he offered advice (nearly for free) to other seniors regarding their estates, wills, trusts, and the like.
He also started and led small group support meetings for seniors who had lost their life partner. This became a very popular activity at the senior center and he told me that he took immense joy from the process.
Well, this is the process of establishing a backup plan that I am encouraging here.
For myself, I recognize that my health will someday limit my mobility and my memory will be challenged. This is based on the known ailments that have been diagnosed and are, by nature, degenerative.
So, I have researched and put into writing several backup plans that I will be able to accomplish at each stage.
First, I have volunteered to go to the local Veterans Center in my town where I will work with young Vets who are preparing for the job market. I will review their resumes and help them prepare to interview in our job market. I spent nearly 40 years in Human Resources functions, so, who better.
I also walked the route from the front of the Veterans Center entrance to the rooms where I will donate my time. I have measured for accessibility once I am in a wheel chair or mobility scooter. Of course, having reviewed the mobility access was already considered by the Center staff for the sake of the Veteran clients.
I also met with the local police department to establish the rules and permissions to make my way to the Center in my scooter where sidewalks are non-existent.
As for my memory challenge, yet to come, I have put labels on each of my kitchen cabinets to indicate what glasses, plates, pots, and pans are in each. Someday I know that I won’t remember these things. Now I am ready.
Also, I have used the label maker to affix to the counters of my bathroom sink top. These spell out the different medications that are to be taken at specific times and intervals. Again, I can take my medications now with relative ease, but I know that degeneration of cognition is coming and I want to be prepared.
All of this will allow me to live on my own for many more years and that is my Retirement Plan.
I spend my days now writing at my computer (what fun!), as right now is the case. And, a few of times a month, someone drives me a couple of hours to deliver lectures to groups at government agencies and a university.
And, of course, I plan some relaxation time at the local seniors’ indoor pool where I can exercise and sit and read.
Well, this is the life that I choose. I am delighted to embrace every single day.
What will your life be like, both originally in Retirement, and your backups?