Mindfulness and Retirement: Time To Play
I have a 17-year-old daughter who is finishing up a year in
Vitoria, Brazil. She's been having the time of her life in a
gorgeous coastal city with the beaches of her dreams and the
cute guys to match. What's not to like?
Tara told us that we could buy a beautiful home ("All marble
floors!") on a spectacular beach ("White sand!") in a number of
lovely cities ("Amazing architecture!") with friendly neighbors
("Dancing all night with people who don't know you but love you
anyway!")
In fact, she helpfully suggested that we could snag one of these
properties for a mere $100,000...less than half of the median
price for a typical house in our area.
She went on to say that we could buy a house on the coast in
Brazil and retire there, with a delightful lifestyle, plenty of
great friends, outstanding and inexpensive medical care, and
zero chance of boredom or loneliness.
We weren't surprised that she suggested this. After all, she has
an ulterior motive--why, SHE could be the one to manage the
property until we decide to retire! She would, of course, have
to live in beautiful, coastal, hunk-heavy, dance-crazed Brazil
in order to do this, but she was willing to make this supreme
sacrifice to support our perfect retirement.
How thoughtful. No, really. It sounds fantastic. I'm turning 45
in June, and that's not too early to think about how I want to
spend the next few phases of my life. I truly appreciate the
suggestion.
The people I admire most are those who continue to reinvent
themselves about every decade, and who laugh out loud at the
notion of retirement. They're on their fifth or sixth "career"
and fully expect to have a couple more, just for fun.
What we really long for in retirement is time to play, and what
we don't recognize is that we should be playing on a daily
basis. We need to live our lives in a way that connects us to
our creativity and joy. Think of it as the Brazilian plan.
How do you picture yourself at age 65? 75? 85? You've got a
decent shot at living to be 100.
Howard and Marika Stone have been inspiring people to reinvent
themselves as they get older. On their website,
2Young2Retire.com, they share dozens of stories of folks who
have done just that. Their intention is to help others "navigate
the uncharted waters of longevity" and they do so with great
passion and humor.
Whether we're 20 or 70, we can use mindfulness to help us see
who we want to be next. The first step? Pay attention to what we
consider to be FUN. Focus on what we do that feels like we're
playing instead of working. Notice our "guilty pleasures"--those
things we do when we think we should be working on something
else.
Here's the good news: You can get paid for having fun. You can
help your community while you're doing what you can only
describe as goofing off. You can learn new skills and
demonstrate overlooked talents in a way that helps others while
making you laugh. And it's not too early to start thinking about
what that might look like.
Retire your idea of retirement and embrace the concept of
reinvention. Look at what you're dreaming about doing, and be
mindful of how you can start "investing" in your opportunities
for greater fun. That's my personal prescription for the
not-enough-Social-Security blues.
That, and perhaps finding a lovely house on the coast in Brazil,
where I can become fluent in Portuguese and become a painter, or
a novelist, or start a school, or build a playground, or design
a community garden, or write songs, or dance til dawn, or be the
happiest grandmother alive. Or all of the above.
I'll tell my daughter to start looking.