Eighteen Months In
Eighteen months into this retirement thing, and I've learned a thing or two.
My journey so far has been diverse, which feels familiar, because my career path was much the same. Maybe that's the theme. I've always lived in a way that moves between interests and seasons rather than following a single straight line.
After the full-time gig ends, life looks different for everyone. For me, it meant learning things and trying things I'd either never allowed myself to pursue, or simply never had time for. Retirement opened a door I didn't realize had been closed.
It also meant focusing on my health, and on a question that keeps surfacing: am I doing the right thing? Am I spending my time the right way? That question comes from old habits. Years of measuring my days by output and productivity, and the need to get it right.
What I'm beginning to realize: there's no wrong way to spend my time. Only the way that feels honest and nourishing.
I like to structure my weeks with a few anchors. Pickleball in the mornings, teaching yoga once a week, this blog and newsletter once a week. These give my days a gentle shape without locking me in. The flexibility is built right into the structure: I can ask a colleague to cover my class. I can find an afternoon pickleball game if the morning doesn't work out. The rhythm is steady enough to hold me, and open enough to let life surprise me, with a spontaneous outing, or learning how to fish, or taking a course in Italy.
Of course, guilt shows up. Many of us feel it when we move away from full-time work, the need to feel productive. I'm learning to replace "productivity" with "fulfillment." The two don't always walk in step. Productivity is about doing. Fulfillment is about being.
Some days I learn something new. Some days I'm mentoring. Some days I rest. All of it counts.
Eighteen months in, I'm discovering that retirement isn't a test or a puzzle to solve. It's a landscape. I get to walk through it at my own pace, and decide what feels fulfilling.
That feels like the right thing.