Double Edged Sword

I’m having mixed feelings about this ‘being retired’ part of life.

After more than 40 years of working with other people, for other people, having them determine when I need to arrive at work, when I can leave, and what I have to be doing while I’m at work, I really love the freedom of determining my own schedule and working out my own time table. I no longer have to be at 5 to be at work by 7; now I get up between 7 and 8, and usually don’t have any place I need to be. I have some control over who I see, when I see them and what I do with them.

On the other hand, now that I have no one else to decide what I will do each day, I have to do that myself. After all, I’m retired, not dead. But I won’t last long if I don’t stay active and engaged, both physically and mentally.

So I decided to start my own business. I really didn’t have any money to spare to set it up, just a few dollars here and there, so it was going to involve a lot of hard work. And it does. Every morning when I get up, I have to decide what parts of my never-ending list of things to do I will tackle that day. And there are times when I wish I had somebody who would tell me which items have a higher priority, which items are worth my time and which are not.

So I plug along, learning new skills, and trying to make the best use of my time.

Still, when the mood hits me, I take the afternoon off and go see a movie. I think that might be the best part about being retired.