Infinite Ideas - Life After Work: Simple Ideas for Enjoying Retirement

Life after work

How to enjoy retirement

Infinite Ideas

8. Earplugs at the ready?

Because if action really does speak louder than words, youre about to make a lot of noise. Get started on those goals.

Are you rubbing your hands with glee at the thought of all the great things youre going to do with your retirement.

Trouble is, life tends to get in the way. Youll want to spend a couple of months just chilling out, getting the feel of your new life. Then therell be a few odd jobs around the house, and I expect youll want a holiday, and therell be Thanksgiving and Christmas In a year or so youll find yourself wondering how you ever found time to go to work and you probably wont be anywhere near doing all the things youd wanted to do. The best way to avoid this situation is to make your goals really clear and to put some hard edges around them. Heres how.

Spot the blockers

When youve identified your dreams, do a bit of a reality check. Dont set yourself up for failure. Everest may be unattainable if youre confined to a wheelchair (though I wouldnt bet on it) so spend a bit of time thinking about the things that could stop you achieving your ambitions. If there are blockers, is there any way you can get around them?

Line up the resources

Think about the resources you might be able to tap into to help you get where you want to be. Who do you know who could help? What skills do you have that will take you part of the way?

Smart goals

Theres a knack to scoring goals. You have to set them up properly. Ive borrowed a bit of business jargon here: goals should be SMART specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. So here goes:

• I want to reach Everest base camp by the time Im 67. Mmm. OK as far as it goes, but it doesnt go far enough. How are you going to do it?
• Im going to book my place on one of the treks, find a fitness course that will prepare me to make the journey, and reach Everest base camp by the time Im 67. Much better. This gives you some small steps along the way, so before you know it youll be halfway to your dream.
• Ill book myself on that course in Madrid, find two people at work to practice on, write a business plan and be ready to set up on my own as an aromatherapist when I retire. This is good. Theres a kind of roller-coaster effect about the kind of plan that opens new pathways and makes some real commitments. Suddenly, you find youre spotting opportunities youd have missed if you didnt have your ears pricked for aromatherapy and youll actually be there doing it by the time you retire.
• I want to lose 5 kilos. Bad example: much better to say, I want to be 65 kilos and be able to fit into a size 12 dress. Why? Because losing weight is pretty negative, whereas being 65 kilos is very positive and uplifting and you can actually imagine how youll look in the dress to keep you working towards your goal.

Action planning

And, finally, theres the plan itself. You need to break down your goals into small, easily achievable steps. Warning: dont produce a multi-coloured, many-paged spreadsheet. Youll spend so much time filling it out that you will never have time for action.

Get a Plan B. Nothings more frustrating than getting halfway to a goal then finding the worlds altered (imagine stealing a million in cash then finding the currencys changed).

Defining idea

Why, sometimes Ive believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll , Alices Adventures in Wonderland

9. VO2 max it

Whaddya mean you dont understand? Shame on you. Get down and work that body at once.

Have you ever wondered why everyones walking past you these days? Why is everyone sprinting these days? Youve got older. The fitness weve always taken for granted has slithered away over the years as muscle turned to fat and joints stiffened from lack of use.

Its absolutely true that youth is wasted on the young. We never appreciated the sheer energy we used to have till weve lost it. Theres no getting away from it, by the time we reach retirement age we have to work a lot harder to stay in the same place. Worse! Because were not as resilient as we used to be, we need our fitness more than ever. We need it to fight off infection, we need it to keep mobile and, frankly, we need if it were going to have some fun.

Whatever shape youre in, kick off your exercise programme by checking with your doctor that its OK for you to step up the pace a little. Dont miss out this step because you could do some serious damage by launching straight into a fitness programme (at the least you risk torn muscles, agonised abs and a grim determination never to exercise again).

Next, be honest about how much exercise you do these days, and assess how youre doing in the three key areas of aerobic fitness, suppleness and strength.

First the exercise. How much time do you spend sitting down, or lying down? Do you use the stairs or do you automatically head for the lift or the escalators? Try using a pedometer to work out whether youre anywhere near the recommended 10,000 steps a day. Do you consciously work out, or have you become a couch potato?

Now check your fitness

VO2 max is a good measure of aerobic fitness because its a number, rather than a description of how you feel. It refers to your lung capacity and a fitness trainer can check it for you with a calculation based on a mile walk or run.

If youre not sure how flexible you are, do a bit of self-watching for a week. Do you suffer from backache or painful joints? Do you groan when you bend (a sure sign of age)? Are there places you just dont attempt to reach any more?

And how strong are you? Do you struggle to lift things these days? Dont win every time at arm wrestling?

Whatever your fitness level, theres no need to look far for get-fit ideas. Were inundated with advice on exercise: adverts for gadgets (the Amazing Super-Dooper Abs Cruncher that will give you a six pack in six weeks at a cost of only half your annual pension), DVD fitness classes with leggy blondes, upbeat TV programmes with oiled bodies, downbeat classes at local schools, hectoring articles in newspapers and even glossy magazines specifically devoted to getting fit. You couldnt get away from it even if you wanted to.

Top tip if youre extremely unfit, start as gently as possible by taking a walk. Make it a short walk on day one; make it a little longer on day two. By walking a bit more each day youll improve your cardiovascular fitness and your muscle tone. To complement the walking find an exercise thats slow and controlled so theres no danger of over-stretching your muscles. Try Tai Chi, or a beginners yoga class, or Pilates. All of these will boost your flexibility and a good teacher will make sure you dont push yourself too hard.

If you cringe at the idea of the gym, just build exercise into your lifestyle. Start small. Play music and dance around the lounge when you vacuum; use stairs instead of escalators; tighten your buttocks when youre standing at the sink washing up.

Defining idea

You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. Shes 97 today and we dont know where the hell she is.

Ellen Degeneres

10. If you think youre stressed now

Retiring doesnt banish stress it just brings a whole new lot of things to stress you out. This is bad news (especially at your age!) so when it happens you need to be able to manage it.

What exactly is stress? Its the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure, or to other types of demands placed on them.

In other words, its not the pressure, its the way you react to it.