Journey to Kona Day 16: A Busy Retirement

My wife and daughter tease me that I’m a very busy retiree.  It seems to them that I have meetings and phone calls nearly every day.  They’re right!  One thing I know for sure.  Keeping busy and maintaining purpose is critical to staying both mentally and physically healthy.  There are studies that show that purpose can stave off the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease!  I know that this morning I woke up feeling a bit off emotionally, which happens to me every so often these days.  Ultimately, I just went for a five mile run along a five mile loop, which meant that once I got half way through it, I was committed to the whole 5 miles.  By the time I finished this easy run, the “off” feeling was gone, and I was ready for a swim.  I had a lunch meeting for a possible business relationship and then nearly 2 hours of phone calls related to a variety of projects I’m involved with.  I try to walk during my phone calls, which today led to an additional 6 miles of walking!  My legs were already fatigued from 15 hours of training last week, so the walking was good from a circulatory perspective, but also added some valuable volume of moving forward to my bodies training.  This is just Monday.  Hopefully, the beginning of another solid week of both life and training!  

I love to share that this is my third attempt at retirement, and that I’ve “failed” the first two attempts.  The key is that we never truly retire, we just adjust our focus.  In fact, having something to focus on is the key!  If you don’t have something to focus on, you’ll tend to feel lost, or at least I do.  I am finding that my ironman training provides a great base of daily activities that I can focus on.  I’m in pretty regular touch with friends and colleagues talking about the things that matter to me.  Plus, I have some ongoing projects to focus on.  With all of that said, my major purpose will continue to be my grandson.  There’s nothing like having a grandchild, and we will soon be moving to within 5 minutes of him, which will make it easier for me to spend time with him most days.  I want him to know that his grandpa will always be there for him!  That beats anything else I can do in retirement.