While at the gym yesterday a friend came up to me and said with a deep furrowed brow, “you’re not like the rest of us Janice, you’ve made a life after retirement. You’re keeping strong and in-shape, you’re competing in natural bodybuilding and writing books and striving to motivate others. You’re showing courage and still growing and developing. Most of us have stopped but you’re still going forward in life.”
Retirement is seen by many as a time to stop and relax and enjoy life but I see this as a recipe for death of the life spirit. I believe that struggle, striving, commitment, persistence and even anxiety are all part of a meaningful life. If you organise your life to eradicate all these elements I believe you will find life empty and meaningless.
Prior to retirement your job would have provided you with a structure and a sense of belonging and a feeling of relevance. It would have determined what time you got up of a morning and when to work and when to rest. When you retire there is no structure.
I believe that we all need to feel we are going forward. If we are not going forward we are going backwards because while we are standing still the world will continue to move on.
So don’t fall behind and let your spirit wither and die, keep going, continue to embrace life, all of it!
