I NEVER THOUGHT AFTER I RETIRED I WOULD WORK SO MUCH

  

That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?

I retired because I was done working for someone else. I was done with schedules, obligations, alarm clocks, meetings, and having somebody else decide what needed to be done and when. Wait NOT an alarm clock, I've never used one of those.

And yet here I am.

I get up in the morning and sometimes I don’t even stop for coffee anymore, I'm really not a coffee drinker much now any way. I start working.

I’ll look up and realize it’s lunchtime. Most days I take a real lunch break. I put my feet up, turn on the television, eat, and actually stop for a while.

Other days lunch is quick and I’m right back at it.

Then somehow I look at the clock again and it’s eight o’clock at night.

I’ve put in a full day.

Again.

But here’s the thing.

Retirement never really meant I stopped working.

I think I just stopped calling a lot of it work.

Pet sitting is work.

Finding pet sits, communicating with homeowners, keeping track of dates, moving into someone else’s home and taking care of it — that’s work.

Planning our travel is work.

Booking cruises, hotels, transportation, figuring out where we need to be and when we need to be there, making sure one trip connects to the next one — that’s work.

Living a nomadic life takes a surprising amount of organization.

And creative work was always there too.

I’ve always been the one taking pictures.

I’ve always been taking videos.

I’ve always been editing videos, documenting trips, telling stories, putting things together, saving memories.

That part isn’t new.

What’s changed is that now I’m turning more of those stories into finished things.

Books.

Blog posts.

Videos.

Projects.

Things that actually begin as an idea in my head and end up existing somewhere outside of me.

And maybe that’s why this work feels different.

I’m not working for somebody else.

I’m working because I want to.

I’m creating because I want to.

I’m following ideas because I want to see where they go.

I retired from employment.

I did not retire from working.

Apparently I also did not retire from being a taskmaster.

Because right now I’m wearing three hats.

I’m the worker.

I’m the boss.

And I’m me.

The worker wants to keep going.

The boss keeps adding things to the list.

And me?

Me occasionally has to remind both of them that lunch is allowed.

That sitting down is allowed.

That watching television is allowed.

That washing my hair does not have to become another item on a productivity checklist.

That retirement was supposed to include a little freedom.

So I may need to call a meeting with management.

Because apparently my work-life balance policy has gone completely out the window.

But here’s the funny part.

This may be the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.

Not because I’m making the most money.

Not because anyone is giving me a promotion.

Not because I’m climbing some corporate ladder.

It’s rewarding because it belongs to me.

The ideas are mine.

The stories are mine.

The schedule is mine.

And if I decide tomorrow that I want to spend an hour walking on a treadmill while talking through a new book idea, I can.

If I want to spend an afternoon editing a video, I can.

If I want to write a blog post because something funny popped into my head while I was supposed to be doing something else, I can do that too.

So maybe I don’t need less work.

Maybe I just need better boundaries.

Maybe work-life balance looks different when the work is actually part of the life you chose.

And maybe retirement was never about doing nothing.

Maybe it was about finally getting to decide what was worth doing.

There’s always a story.

Apparently retirement has quite a few of them.