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Just a typical retirement lifestyle weekend!

by on August 15, 2011

Catch up Monday

Monday finds me resting up from a busy weekend. No time for posting. No time for finishing work in progress. There isn’t even time to catch a breath. It’s not the vision of retirement lifestyle that most of us  expect but it is what can happen when you try to push the envelope and grow. The weekend was busier than is typical but now that it is over, I’m pleased that I did it all. 

It started off with a San Francisco day trip on Friday. It’s been six months since our first exploration and way overdue. We spent the morning walking Chinatown and North Beach and ended the day with oysters and drinks at the Embarcadero before catching the 4:30 ferry back home. Saturday, my wife took a riding lesson and I had a business seminar. Sunday I traveled back to San Francisco on BART for a WordPress Wordcamp. Quite a marathon!

It was worth it. 

Looking back over the weekend, it is hard to take it all in. Each day was working a facet of my lifestyle plan for retirement. The different elements of that plan don’t usually rub together so tightly. This intensity of activity is something I try to avoid because it stresses me out but last weekend it all fell together and I got it all done. This intensity of activity normally makes me uncomfortable. This weekend went so fast that I didn’t have time to think about it. I think I’m finally pushing past that barrier.

If you aren’t getting better- you’re getting worse. 

Life mastery is part of my of my retirement lifestyle plan. For me this means identifying the important elements that I want to have and then doing what it takes to make them happen. No more making excuses or deferring activity. The day trips to San Francisco to explore the richness of that city is a start but over time, longer trips to places far away. Business activity to generate more income to make those trips longer and more comfortable. Finally improving my communication skills- particularly as they relate to blogging. It all came together for me this weekend.

I’ve been letting the fun with my wife slip and that is just wrong. It’s the reason I have this retirement lifestyle project and if it is not part of my current lifestyle then the plan is a failure which is why we went. It has been too easy to postpone and the excuses had to stop. I made the commitment and we went. The other events were uncontrollable. I’d made the commitment and so I followed through.

But Blogging? 

It turns our that the real stretch for me was Wordcamp. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what I would learn. I wasn’t even sure if it was worth the six hour commute but I have been using the WordPress platform for over two years now, long enough to take its power for granted. I felt that Wordpess bloggers were pushing the envelope and represented the best of the field. If I wanted to push my blogging abilities , I needed to attend.

Come back for part 2.

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Retirement Lifestyle:Working as a team

by on August 10, 2011
Horse Team Collecting Maple Sap in March 1975

Image by foroyar22 via Flickr

I’ve created a monster!

For a long time around the Carlson household, I had it easy. My wife was busy with her projects leaving me to fuss and bluster about doing my own things and getting wild and crazy in our retirement. Truth was, I had my head stuck in my own projects and wasn’t making much headway.

Well last month my wife got focused. “We are in a rut!” she tells me. “I need some excitement.”

Since then, we’ve been skydiving, horseback riding and Friday we are making another day trip to San Francisco. In the past, I’ve used my wife an an excuse for not doing more. I told myself it was difficult to get her moving.  Maybe that was justified then but no longer. If there is any anchor around here, it’s me.

It’s no longer all about me. 

I’m always the smug one that tries to look superior whatever the discussion. But I am seldom the leader of the pack pushing the envelope and making it happen. I don’t like to be called out as a poser but that is exactly what my wife is doing (in a nice way of course). I like to think I’m spontaneous and quick to act. The truth is that I want lots of information before I can get myself moving. It make me uncomfortable to be pushed which is probably why I dither rather than taking action.

 Life is fast and furious.

So lately with my wife’s pressure, we’ve been doing rather than thinking.  Truthfully acting quickly doesn’t seem to cause any problems and it definitely saves time.  What has happened recently to us is that we are now working as a team. My wife is pushing me to overcome my weaknesses as I do the same for her. Short term, it’s darn annoying. Long term, we are going to do more and enjoy the journey. I hate being pushed but, like a mule, I do move when you get my attention.

Bottom line, my wife and I operating as a team will make our retirement better and richer than either of us following our own track separately. Those faults that I recognize in myself but can’t change get her attention and we are all better for it.

It’s all a process.

We are still coming to grips with working as a team. Neither of us has been much of a team player up to now, but we are leaning. It’s not always easy but the benefits are undeniable. Managing a retirement lifestyle can be a challenge whether you are single or a couple. Singles may lack motivation without a partner to urge them on and couples may reinforce inertia rather than change. If you are married, how do you see the teamwork. Are you a natural team or is it still a struggle to work together?

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