Time. Something we all have a limited supply of. So many fitting quotes about time, 'Time is money', 'The days are long and the years are short', 'Time is something we'll never have more of','Time is something we want most, but use worst'. The list goes on and on. We are all blessed with the same amount of seconds in a minute, minutes and a hour and hours in a day. What we do with that day is up to us.
As I meet with people nearing retirement the discussion around time becomes very important. Anyone that's worked a full time job for 35+ years has filled 40+ hours per week and now has a lot of time to fill. Finding things to fill that time can be difficult. How would I fill the hours in a day if I had no place to be? Without my occupation what does my purpose become? What would I love to do if I didn't need a paycheck to do it? These are soul searching questions that anyone nearing retirement should ask themselves.
My recommendation to pre-retirees is simple; keep your eyes and your mind open to anything. Look for something that gives you the purpose, the energy and the flexibility you are looking for. Find something that gets you so excited that you'll jump out of bed in the morning to go. If you're lucky maybe you already have that in your current job, if you don't, search for it to fill your time in retirement.