Challenges Of Retired Life

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

I write this post prostrate on bed. A change of season sees viral on the rise in this part of the country. Acute body ache with feverish feeling but the thermometer recorded my body temperature as 95.50 degree Fahrenheit. Below normal.🤔🤔

That apart I am still sane. But life post retirement has brought on new challenges for sure. This comes as an unexpected surprise.

Nearing retirement I was euphoric. For almost four decades I had been working. I was looking forward to a restful life. ‘Everything will be all right now’ was the feeling. But a new phase of life, be it the last one, also needs learning, unlearning and relearning and a whole lot of management. I realised that soon enough.

Finance Management

The prime concern is of course sources of a regular income. Since, I have never been much too concerned with money the entire working life now keeping a tab on  inflow and outflow of funds is a serious preoccupation.

It’s not privation (as it is I live a simple life) that bothers me but the money consciousness which is not in my nature. Being meticulous about money matters, assessing the profitability of every venture, being additionally aware that nobody fleeces you off your limited resources are challenging for a person who has a more philosophical than materialistic approach to life.

Health Management

As per modern parlance it is lifestyle management. But I am not into a hectic work schedule anymore. Nor am I a party hopper or a night owl. Still with age healthcare becomes a priority. As I have said I lead a frugal life. I am a home bird. My leisure activities are also not too exotic. Yet, to be fit one has to adopt certain good habits like daily walk, getting adequate dose of vitamin D , that is, sunning,  moderate exercises and timely and healthy eating.

I have taken to yoga, as I wrote in my last post. It’s been a month now but I realise even exercise needs certain amount of physical fitness and flexibility which over time have eroded from my body. Getting back my muscle strength will take sometime. Till then continuing with the exercises is strenuous and painful. I hope I last the rigors. By the way my friends and family are really happy with this latest (yogic)stint if mine. Whether I will be able to live up to their happiness for long I am doubtful.

House Management

Managing the household is a twenty four hours job.  Even till her mid eighties mother was active within the bounds of the house and  managed from cooking to cleaning. It was only when her memory started failing that we dissuaded her from straining herself. 

I genetically suffer from work mania. Prior to retirement I had thought office work would get replaced by house work. But even after retirement I find less time to do house work. Not to say the exhaustion at the end of each day which brings me to the next most crucial point.

Time Management

It’s a universal requirement pre or post retirement.  I thought retirement would enable endless time and innumerable options for day dreaming and  being deliberately indecisive about everything in general. Till now it has not happened so. Most of the days end with dissatisfaction of not finishing some task which is apparently urgent. Needless to say, I have  not found time for sky gazing as well.

My daily routine has not yet been set. I get up late which irks me.  As soon as  the morning regime is over its time for the class.  I get back exhausted to have a late breakfast. Lunch is prepared in a hurry if I have to go out. If not then too meal is partaken at a delayed hour. A nap follows which again delays work scheduled for the evening. Consequently, I have decided to forego the nap. But that does not imply a more efficient timetable because every day brings in some kind of unanticipated exigency. It’s for me to accept that these emergent situations will remain as part of my retired life too.

Priority Management

Life cannot be without priorities whether on or off duty. My priorities are  health and me time. Health also includes my mother’s. That is top most priority. Since with age her stability is on the decline it’s a wavering graph all the time taking up most of my time and attention.

Prioritising my own health resulted in some kind of a fiasco as even the most moderate fitness regime tires me out to no end. Together with years of sleep deficit resulted in an inordinately prolonged soporific phase for quite sometime to the extent that I started feeling guilty of over-lazing.

Leisure Management

As I said my Utopian concept of retirement is in doldrums now. With an upset routine leisure is in the back burner. As a result, I have only been able to complete a half read book till now. A short story which I had thought of enlarging into a novella is languishing in an external drive which is on the brink of corruption. I have not got a chance to check it up and won‘t be too surprised if it is found to be beyond repairs. My doodle book is lying somewhere. It has a locking system, you know.🤔 I have lost confidence of penning my next poem. Summer heat on the sky will be ablaze. So no cloud watching either. A few minutes only I get to steal to post a hurried blog – early morning or late night!!! That’s it…..my leisure…

Self Management

This is new to me but I guess this is the most significant one. While retiring I had made it an agenda to slow down. I rejected an extension in service which could have fetched me a lavish income for the sake of it. To my sheer amazement, it entailed  conscious reminders to myself that I need not get into the pre-retirement work mode as I have sufficient time in hand now.

My yoga teacher reminded me that it was more important to do a posture right than doing it more times in a short span. I was not to hurry.

If I was out I would try to club n number of chores forgetting I could do a few the day next.

My dream of having a scrumptious breakfast in an unhurried manner is somewhere lost.

The days I don’t have some immediacy I rejoice. However, those days are very few in number.

In brief, it takes a lot of time and effort to get into the retired mode which in itself is a challenge. And I am learning, unlearning and relearning this in very slow measures everyday.

Do wish me luck.

😕😕🤨🤨