“The joy of retirement comes in those everyday pursuits that embrace the joy of life; to experience daily the freedom to invest one’s life-long knowledge for the betterment of others; and, to allocate time to pursuits that only received, in years of working, a fleeting moment.” – Byron Pulsifer
One of the first things I created to kick-off my planning for retirement was a vision board. Currently it sits beside my desk on a large bulletin board. I can look over at it whenever I am working from home and of course all the times I am at home doing personal things at my desk. It is not inclusive of everything I am planning for in my retirement. I couldn’t find magazine clippings for all of that. And my board takes up most of the wall already.
I like the visual reminders I was able to gather for this space. It grounds me in what I know will be true about the future. My board depicts some of what I will have time for in the future, which I do not have time to enjoy now. I will be able to prioritize new projects, bring ideas to life and pick up on old threads of interest which have been tucked away for safe keeping. .
“Retirement, a time to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, where you want to do it and how you want to do it,” – Catherine Pulsifer
Creativity will be at the fore. In fact, it is now, but under all sorts of outside restrictions. I am constantly making compromises. Retirement will be my self-directed grand adventure. I won’t have to consider what is going on in the corporate calendar before I book a vacation. I’ll be able to take as many days as I want to do whatever I want. My only consideration might be the budget. But so much of what I like to do only costs time, not money. As Seanan McGuire said, “Money comes and goes, but time only goes”.
Being able to take care of myself by cooking from scratch is a priority. If anything, this is a less expensive way to live especially since I will have the time to tend a garden and harvest all sorts of fruits and vegetables. And the taste is so much better! This is not a new skill for me to learn. I’ve dabbled in gardening, done loads of cooking and some food preserving. Sometimes I spend a Sunday afternoon batch cooking for the week ahead and I get some nice lunches and dinners from that effort. The trick is to make this feel like a fun thing to do and not just another chore to add to my already long list. As it stands now, there are weekends when I need the entire 2-days of rest to recover from the previous work week.
My vision board has images of the place we will move to. Nothing specific as we don’t know that yet. It will be close to the ocean, we probably can’t afford a view of the water, but that is OK. The beaches are free to walk on and pick up bits of tumbled glass to add to my collection. Sitting by the water reading a library book, that is free too. To have time to read an entire book in a day or two is a luxury I can hardly believe will come true. Taking in the sights and sounds of nature is healing to my core. The scent of the moist air is a tonic. This seaside environment is something I have missed in the years I have been away.
Lifelong learning is a phrase on my vision board. I’ve toyed with the idea of taking classes and maybe even enrolling in a full-time program. The only problem might be if I would be accepted. It is not normal for a person of 50+ years of age to be taking up a learning space. Maybe it doesn’t make sense to commit that much time to a structured program either. Learning doesn’t need to equate to school. Hacking an education has never been easier. The gatekeepers to learning are not there anymore. I’m constantly impressed by people who want to know something and go online and learn it.
Similar to learning is the idea of practice. With more time, I’d like to get good at making bread, for example. In my corporate working life, I would have to spend hours and hours of my free time on just this one task in order to get good at it. I’m interested in too many things for that kind of time sacrifice. Not to mention I have loads of personal responsibilities. Creating a sourdough starter and keeping it alive would be something nice to accomplish. The fruits of this labour would always yield something good to eat. I’d like to have the ability to easily feed myself and provide for my guests without having to consult recipes, learn new techniques, go to the store for new ingredients and then labour over something I’ve not done before, hoping for the best, under a tight timeline. I could take as much time as I want or need in retirement.
Connection with others is a theme on my board. Having the time to join a book club is a luxury for me. I’m not going to complain that my job required so much travel that I could never be tied down to personal commitments, but it is a fact. I’ve changed more appointments than I care to admit. I feel compelled to bend my personal life in order to prioritize work. It is only now, nearing the end that I feel confident enough to just say no, I have a personal engagement at that time and therefore you need to work around that. I would never expect any else to put work first, but I’ve always left my personal schedule flexible to allow for work.
I created my vision board by going through old magazines with a straight edge. I pulled out everything that sparked my interest. There is no point to analyze at this point. Rather it is better to move through the images with freedom. Once I had a good-sized pile of images, quotes, and words, I moved them into topic piles. Then I placed them in a pleasing visual manner, layering the largest first and then smaller pieces on top. Then carefully I added tape to the back of the overlaps. As sections start to form, I would flip them over and more heavily tape the back. Alternatively, a very large piece of paper or board as the starting point. You could also make a digital vision board, using whatever program you have. Or you can find images online and print them in color. I’ve also made vision boards in journals, spanning a couple of pages. There are no rules. It only depends on what feels inspirational and useful. I like to have my images ready to glance at. But if I was working more nomadically, it would be nice to have my inspiration board with me in digital form or printed in my planner. Whatever you choose, enjoy the process as much as the end product!
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