Time Will Let Me

That old garage rock song by the Outsiders famously proclaimed that “Time Won’t Let Me.” Newly retired me has been singing it lately. I vaguely remember that the song was about an impatient young man not wanting to wait forever for his love. But that key refrain about time is now in my head, in an opposite context though. My new phase of life is where time WILL let me do lots of things.  When I worked 40 hour work weeks, time was dictated by shifts, days off, and vacations.  Not anymore…

Retirement has forced me to reassess my approach to time. Retirement creates a new time definition.  Without having employment time dictates, how do I fill my daily expanse of time? I slow down, make a new schedule, volunteer, start new projects, get a different harmony.  I am becoming more aware of my neighborhood activities, noticing animals and birds around me in the garden and on my walks. Weather even has its own fascinating TV channel to watch. This is something I previously would have passed by as too boring and not very relevant.

Step Away From the Media

When retirement first happened to me, I spiraled into a depressing overload of TV and internet.  I had to reset that habit pretty quickly. Some of the weird covid environment I was in contributed to this-  everyone was trying to understand what was happening with the pandemic  (most importantly when it was ending!!) Watching television news or internet-surfing was an immediate reaction to find some answers.

Technology overload finally convinced retired me that doing too much TV and internet was not going to speed covid’s departure. Additionally spending too much of my newly discovered retirement time mostly on TV and internet was not healthy. It was giving me less in the way of answers, and more anxiety and depression, over things I neither fully understood nor could change. 

So the best perk about retirement is the abundance of time on your hands. Unlike in the song, time will now let you do lots. Choosing to use your time well is the trick.