3.1 – Developing a Balanced Leisure Lifestyle

• Survey results:  36% don’t know how to spend their time in retirement.  They don’t have outside interests

Gone are the days of rushing to work, fighting traffic, meeting deadlines, skipping lunch, and working overtime.  Retirement is the time to slow down, relax, and play.  This is your reward for all your years of hard work.  The question for you now is this: what are you going to do with your leisure time?

It’s quite common for new retirees to spend many months in at-home vacation mode. It feels great to not have to set an alarm.  It’s nice to pull on jeans instead of a suit.  It’s wonderful to hit the links when the course isn’t busy, to read the books that have been piling up on the nightstand.  These retirees think they can pull off total unstructured leisure.  But can you imagine playing golf six or seven times a week or watching TV for hours at a time? Most of us would begin to hate the game or would eventually want to throw the TV out the window.

In addition to attempting to live in vacation mode, it’s very common for new retirees to tackle their ‘honey-do list’ with unprecedented gusto; clear out the garage and sewing room; fix the squeaky doors; paint the spare bedroom; hang the new curtains; weed, plant, repot.  But even if you have a very long list, you’ll eventually run out of things that need doing around the house.

When you run out of things to do, we often begin to lose our sense of self, our feeling of usefulness.  We often also lose structure in terms of time, and largely unstructured days, for days on end, can have negative effects including anxiety and depression.

These negative effects tend to accumulate slowly over time and can be extremely difficult to recognize. This is just one reason why proactively building a balanced leisure lifestyle is so important.  So just what does balanced mean?

A balanced leisure lifestyle includes at least one regular activity in each of these categories:

• Entertainment
• Education
• Travel
• Exercise
• Social activities
• Hobbies

Entertainment stimulates your mind and provides healthy diversions and amusement.  The activity should be something meaningful, but this doesn’t mean it has to be expensive.  Suitable entertainment includes:

• Attending concerts, films, plays or sporting events
• Watching your favourite films and tv shows at home
• Dining out
• Attending fairs, festivals, or other special events
• Hosting dinner parties or get-togethers to play cards or other tabletop games
• Going on a regular date night (or day) to have a special dinner and/or do something special together

Education.  You need to continue to give yourself opportunities to learn.  This not only gives your brain stimulation; it also energizes your sense of adventure and discovery.  Common educational activities include:

• Learn a new language
• Learn a new craft
• Research your genealogy
• Become a tour guide at a local museum
• Attend lectures, workshops, and seminars
• Take cooking classes
• Read challenging non-fiction

Travel.  Most successful retirees I’ve interviewed mention the importance of including travel as part of a balanced leisure lifestyle.  When we travel, we acquire different perspectives of the world, whether it’s travelling to the next province or state, a nearby country, or around the globe.  Learning more about our world, and its people and events enriches our lives.

Travelling also helps us develop mental and emotional flexibility because we usually encounter the unexpected along the way.  This, in turn, helps us handle the unexpected at home with less stress.

Exercise:

• 36% of those between the ages of 45 to 65 don’t have a health and wellbeing strategy, including not having an exercise plan.

Every retiree needs regular exercise.  You should include at least one exercise component in your leisure plan.  Whether you choose to hike, bike, golf, swim, fish, play tennis, do yoga, or power walk, you will benefit from some activity that helps you stay physically fit.

Don’t let physical or financial limitations hold you back.  There are many options for inexpensive exercise you can do at home, including types for people with limited mobility.  Tai Chi, yoga, and chair-and water-based exercise are just a few.

Be sure to consult with your doctor before beginning any new exercise. 

When Eva retired, she gave considerable thought to taking up a sport.  Traditionally she wasn’t an active person, so she talked to friends regarding their sporting choices and why they enjoyed them.  After considering the possibilities, Eva decided to participate in women’s bowling and group power walking. As a result, she has more energy and drive plus she enjoys the camaraderie and friendship of her fellow sports enthusiasts.

Social activities.  Interacting with others is important at all stages of life.  When we retire, we leave many associations behind, and we also lose convenient places to build friendships, share common interests, and enjoy the company of others.  Most people don’t realize the extent to which co-workers help fill the basic need for socialization – the lunchtime talks, coffee breaks, company, and industry events, grabbing a drink after work – and often find themselves feeling lonely without knowing why.

It’s important to replace the shared time you had through work with other social activities that provide fellowship.  Joining a service or social club can be a great way to fill this need.  Consider groups such as Lions Clubs International, Optimists International, or Rotary. You might want to consider Probus Clubs, an offshoot of Rotary created to address the social needs of retired and semi-retired people.

There are plenty of non-business social groups including book clubs, knitting circles, hiking clubs, motorcycle clubs, etc.  The important thing is to get out there and participate, socialize, meet new people, and make new friends. 

Clare felt lost when she retired from her job as a librarian of 27 years.  Not only did she enjoy helping people meet their information and reading needs, but she also loved the discussion with fellow librarians over a coffee or lunch.  She missed the political debates, talking about community events and projects, and of course, the banter over individual interests, hopes, dreams, hobbies, and families.

After settling into her retirement, Clare realized the importance of other’s company.  To fill her need for companionship, she joined a reading club.  Each week club members meet for breakfast and discuss the books they have read.  Not only was Clare totally at home talking about books, she expanded her literary knowledge and developed several close friendships.

Hobbies.  Successful retirees emphasize the importance of having at least one hobby.  One of the greatest benefits is the pleasure of working at something without having any obligation to do so. 

Hobbies are yet another thing for which there are many options.  Here are some:

• Painting or drawing
• Knitting or other needlecrafts
• Restoring cars, furniture, etc.
• Making wine or beer
• Running a doll ‘hospital’
• Photography
• Gardening
• Model building

Experiment and adjust over time

Be prepared to experiment with your leisure activity selection until you find the right mix.  Also, be prepared to adjust over time as the opportunities and your interests change.  You might also need to adjust as your physical or financial situations change.  Don’t let new challenges deter you!

Just as everyone should experiment to find the right mix of activities, couples should experiment to find the right balance of things they do together and things they do separately.

It’s also important for couples to communicate about this.  Discuss expectations, any feelings of exclusion and budget issues.

Working and Volunteering

When considering your balanced leisure lifestyle, many successful retirees add working and/or volunteering in their time management considerations.  One of the benefits of working in retirement is a greater appreciation of your leisure hours.  Retirees report that money jobs and volunteering also help eliminate their down periods, especially if they have too much leisure time on their hands.  Another reported benefit is the therapeutic value of keeping mentally and physically sharp.

Through working and volunteering, you might also meet compatible people – people with similar interests and perspectives as yours.  This can lead to developing new friendships and widening your social circle.  Working and volunteering might also provide you with opportunities to showcase your professional or trade skills as well as learn new ones.  This can give you a great sense of accomplishment and can even lead to new careers.

After years of enjoying golf only once a month (if I was lucky), I looked forward to playing as often as I wanted.  Joined the local club.  Entered every tournament.  Bugged my working buddies to play hooky and went on as a single when that didn’t work.  I was thrilled to see my game improve, but after a couple of months, my scores crept up.  Lessons didn’t help.  Eventually, I realized that I was bored. Reg. H. manager

When I retired, I immediately began to address a long list of repairs and improvements in my house.  This was quite gratifying, at first.  But when my daughter laughingly accused me of repeating to-dos; I had to acknowledge she was right.  I did not know what to do with my time. Cecil D., former tool and die maker