How to keep your curiosity alive in retired life

My line of work may have been completely different from yours, but I feel confident we both wrestled with these issues: 

·      problems to deal with

·      relationships with colleagues

·      goals to achieve

·      deadlines to meet 

What will happen when all that disappears from your life, once you retire?

Your first reaction may be a feeling of relief. Mine was. Then it became clear that I was missing something. But it wasn’t the specific work challenges that I missed.

What I missed was the process of working out a problem. I call it curiosity. What I mean by curiosity is grabbing onto a topic to follow it through to a satisfactory outcome, over time, because it interests you.

Curiosity in retirement means taking hold of a question and following it to see where it leads. So, for the 30 or so years of your retirement how will you give oxygen to your curiosity?

Here are some tips on what to work on, which I hope you will find helpful:

·      Find aspects of your family, both today and in history, that you want to understand better

·      Locate a practical craft or skill you’ve always wanted to know more about?

·      Recall a subject at school that you gave up, but now want to return to? 

·      Discover a country whose history fascinates you, such that you are curious to know more?

I’ve explored all of these myself and I can say that the beautiful thing is that you won’t feel pressure to come up with answers, as you did at work.

Take these investigations as far as you want, or abandon them when you wish. Curiosity can give energy to your days without feeling like work. 

If you are curious to talk about curiosity I’d love to have a chat, no obligation, text me at 0409 116 766.

Dr Jon Glass Retirement Specialist and Coach at 64PLUS for over 12 years. To find out more about 64PLUS visit this page: https://www.64plus.com.au/how-i-help