Almost every working person near the retirement age, today, says that they want to extend their retirement because they can’t think of themselves sitting at home and doing nothing. While it’s a noble thought, it is slightly misdirected IMHO (in my humble opinion).
We will all agree that today our working life drains us completely because we have no time for ourselves, especially in a big city. We forcefully pull ourselves out of the bed in the morning, skip breakfast, spend the whole day firefighting business issues, have lunch at odd hours, curse the system for our miseries, wade through the traffic howling at others, reach home in a bad mood, hurriedly eat dinner, finish that one last email and crash. We are not happy but we continue working because we need that money at the end of the month and there is nothing wrong with it.
However, if we are cautious and disciplined most of us save enough money to live our life comfortably after retirement. So why would we still want to continue working if we are tired and miserable? Because we were taught to study hard the first 25 years of our life, we were taught to earn a living for the next 35 years but nobody has told us what to do for the next 30 odd years after retirement. We are completely clueless and the thought of our empty schedule scares us immensely.
But if you really think about it, retirement is the best time of our lives. We are done with most of our responsibilities, we have saved up enough money, we now have time for ourselves and the best part is that we still feel energetic.
So embrace this change. Hug your family members without any reason, listen to them – they are actually wonderful people; call the neighbours over for tea, teach the needy children, enjoy the fragrance of the first rain with fresh pakoras, play with the kids, revive that long forgotten hobby, travel as much as you can with an open schedule, take care of your physical and mental health, do some gardening, dance to the Bollywood tunes, take your time and enjoy the daily chores, the list goes on and on.
The purpose of our lives is to be happy and spread happiness and after retirement we actually have time to do it; make the best use of it.
