It really is amazing that, even in our post COVID days, while we are returning to a somewhat normal life, we’re still haunted. The residual mind games, wariness, even low level fear stay with us. It seems that we just haven’t fully hit the reset button yet.
Around the world, especially for the younger generations, they who are busy and those who are still involved, or living it up as daily life or a response to our former isolation, hurrah. It’s wonderful to see people vibrant again, kids back at college in relative safety, our young adult population returning to actual offices, jobs behind counters, and back in service to others. A large portion of baby boomers are cruising again or snow birding to winter escapes. However, there are those who still have a knot in their social schedule or their throat.
Between the effects of COVID, which, for many, seem to include an inability to remember what we were doing before the train derailed, and finding new reason to get up and do it every day, the older generation has been double-whammied. Retirement can be a very tough transition, regardless of whether the job we’re retiring from was a get up and go out into the weather job, working by remote, or staying home and holding the fort. Added to the confinement during 2020- 2021 and the cautious reentry of 2022, the transition can be near impossible. There’s brain fog, loss of momentum, tenacity and focus, and an inability to even remember what we were doing and how we were doing it before COVID messed with everybody. For those in what were supposed to be the golden years, the fact that some of us hadn’t gotten to know what those should be, it all leaves lots of us wandering around aimlessly every day looking for validation to do anything.
Daily purpose is paramount. Retirees, older adults, even empty nesters, usually take a bit of time to retreat, regroup and get a new game on. It certainly can be some kind of wonderful, fabulously liberating and huge fun, even if it takes a bit of refocusing. Other times, we can experience a little bit of the blues, and difficulty calibrating that new path.
The key is to plan to be productive. We all always have closets to clean out, but that’s not really as fulfilling as a road trip, a coastal biking vacation or taking dance lessons. However, it is an essential part of reorganizing and refreshing a life that has changed courses. It helps if every day has some “closet” – a goal of some sort. Every day needs direction and purpose. Whether tackling our tango or tackling that pile of papers on our desk, every day goals are mandatory. A hit list for the month, or every month, may be required.
The most wonderful goals we can set out for ourselves every day are the ones that help us accomplish something we either hate but must do, or love and want to do. It all helps feed our soul and clear our head. Whenever we look and can see achievement, we can feel good about it and ourselves. Most importantly, we can justify our day to ourselves and clarify our agenda.
Having a hit list for the day is always a good idea; it keeps us on course. There will be days when we do only one thing whether its lunch with friends, work at the soup kitchen, or just shop for the things we’ll need to be productive tomorrow – like a shredder. Whatever we need. The important thing is to have a plan and make it work to our sanity every day.
Some days, I find that the only things I’m getting done are the things I’m doing for others … whether that’s helping out one of my kids, getting dragged on a road trip with my hubby, or attending some luncheon that has nothing to do with me. Those things are also important. We must give ourselves permission to be busy with whatever comes our way and know that our productivity doesn’t have to be about us. All participation counts.
Every day, I postpone things that I feel may never get done, but if any of us is going to do that, it’s best we understand that if we actually are accomplishing any wee bitty thing, whatever it is, it’s okay … and then, of course, there’s also Wordle.
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.
