The “3 L's"

In our last post, we noted that one of the central questions retirees face is “What do I do with the freedom and time retirement provides?” The question seems simple and straightforward enough, but many of us struggle with it because, well, having so much freedom and unrestricted time is such a new experience for us. For many, retirement represents an abrupt change from having way too little time to do all that their working and family lives require to now having a surplus of time to do as they wish.

In recognizing this dilemma, as we point out in our book, Make Retirement...Work: A Navigational Guide to the Best Years of Your Life, one approach is to change our conception of time from a vertical progression of education, then work, and then retirement to a horizontal orientation, where ”Learning” becomes the counterpart education, “Labor” becomes a counterpart to work, and, finally, “Leisure” becomes the counterpart to retirement. Instead of education, work, and retirement being vertically arranged life stages that occur over the course of our life spans, the “3 L’s” happen every day.  It looks like this: Each day we learn a little something new, we engage in some kind of (usually limited) labor, and we engage in some kind of leisure activity. . . every day.  Every day.

The common thread in this new way of conceptualizing time and making the most of retirement — indeed, the way we confront the “What” question is . . . ENGAGEMENT.  And if there is a secret to a fulfilling retirement, beyond being financially responsible, and keeping moving physically, it is to become engaged in activities and causes that are important to us.

Rick Hearin