A Healthy Approach to Retirement
Men Need to Plan for a Healthy and Fulfilling Retirement
Oct 15, 2009
Men as they get older start worrying about the right time to leave work - or even whether they can afford to leave work. Is it better to wind down gradually (work less days each week or less hours each day) or should one go cold turkey and make a clean break?
Loss of Job
Men tend to identify themselves with their jobs which are often associated with their self image and sense of status - so how does a man handle the grief and loss of giving up the job that virtually defined his being over several decades? Is it easy to cope with farewells to valued colleagues and long term customers and clients - to wake up one morning realising that one no longer is needed at the office?
What about the likelihood of one's marital relationship changing - for better or worse - after retirement ? If a wife has been (as many wives do, combining professional duties with domestic duties) with great efficiency managing the affairs of the household, she may not always appreciate the increased presence of an unemployed husband around the house after his retirement!
Men Need to Feel Useful
A significant need for men, especially as they get older, is to feel useful . With the average life span of men today being much greater than it was a century ago, the "compulsory age of retirement" is not a deadline that signifies a prelude (in contrast to the situation fifty years ago) to five or six years of preparation for death.
A successful transition to retirement requires a man to be flexible and adaptable to change. As Darwinian theory describes it, species that are successful are not the strongest or the largest - but those that are most adaptable to external change. So it should be with the male approaching retirement age - stay in good health and adapt to the changed circumstances instead of hankering for what is lost.
Hobbies
A useful preparation for retirement is to develop three hobbies that serve to optimize physical, mental and emotional health.
- A social activity: Man is a social being who needs to maintain connectivity to other sentient beings - and this type of activity helps to build up social networks which can gradually replace the workplace networks. A suitable social activity that one enjoys serves the purpose of keeping one involved with like minded folk. It may be some form of voluntary work (charity work) or getting involved in an organization (examples are Rotary, the Freemasons, Lions, the University of the Third Age) or joining a local group to play bridge, to enjoy ballroom dancing or even to get together to go out for plays and musicals.
- A physical activity that will allow one to maintain one's physical wellbeing and keep fit. It does not matter whether one walks (with or without one's dog / wife / friend!), swims or cycles, whether one jojns a gym or a Latin American dancing class, whether one plays tennis, golf or bowls, whether one improves one's flexibiltiy by doing Pilates or Tai Chi or Yoga. What is important is that one uses the opportunity of looking after one's body and keeping the heart, muscles and joints in good shape. If one does not remain fit and active, poor health will prevent one enjoying retirement!
- A personal hobby that one can indulge in by oneself. This has the dual purpose of giving one something pleasurable to do even if the weather outside is bad - as well as keeping the brain cells active and staving off dementia. Reading, learning a new language or a musical instrument, collecting stamps or tracing one's family tree, finally mastering the myriad uses of the computer or putting finger to keyboard to release that suppressed creative writer in you - the possibilities are endless!
So if men fail to plan for their retirement, they are surely planning to fail in having a happy, healthy and fulfilling retirement.
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