Do My Routines Reflect My Vision?

My retirement lifestyle vision statement was revised a number of times in my early retirement years but has been consistent now for quite a while.  It is based on my core values and remains:

Active Body, Connected Heart, Contemplative Mind, Creative Spirit

In my journal this week I asked myself, “Do my routines currently hit all the vectors of my retirement lifestyle vision statement?”  I do have daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly routines. Am I really living my retirement lifestyle vision? And if not, what should I be planning as we get back into our home and more “back to normal”?

Yes, there is an assessment tool in my Retirement Transition book (link here – book still available on Amazon!) that I have continued to use through the years, looking at activities (what you do/where you spend your time) versus values. It’s a simple chart assessment of vision (or values if you don’t have a vision statement) and actual activities you are doing. 

My chart looked like below as I went through my calendar and filled in all my daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly routines and habits. Then I checked off which vector of my vision the activity or habit supported. Yes, one activity can support multiple vectors, or none at all.

Activities	Active Body	Connected Heart	Contemplative Mind	Creative Spirit
DAILY
WEEKLY
MONTHLY
QUARTERLY

As I reviewed my normal routines, I realized I have dropped off Intentional Connections, setting up “dates” with friends (both IRL and virtually) and monthly dinners with hubby.  Although I’m doing OK on my Connected Heart vector with multiple other activities, I still want to restart a monthly plan on Intentional Connections, maybe with some activities that support Active Body (beach walk, bike ride).

This review showed me that my current routines are very, very short on my creativity vector! I have no regular creative projects in process – no garden planning, no crafting, no subject to study. Some of that is due to not having a garden at the moment and not having space to do crafts.  But there are other creativity things I’ve let slide – Zentangle, needlepoint, research and synthesis. Even my current garden club projects are not creative, they are time consuming and administrative! I do know once we are back in the house, creativity projects will increase as I sort through what craft supplies still exist and I remake much of my yard art.  I do plan to get back into cooking – trying on new recipes again!

Later this fall, I definitely need to review my current Possibilities List with a Try-it-on mindset and create some additional weekly (or monthly) habits that will bring me back to living the retirement lifestyle vision I really do want to live.

Do you ever reflect on your actual activities versus your core values? [Or is my overthinking this too much? ]

House Update (for those following the recovery journey) – The drywall process takes a lot of time – screw on drywall, screw inspection, tape, “mud” seams, texture – so many steps!. We are now ready for painting both exterior and interior, so hoping for some color photos this week.  We had to rethink the house color – even though they told me at the paint store that the color I picked was available to make in an exterior paint, they told my GC different when he went to buy it. (I guess they told me what they thought I wanted to hear, but wouldn’t lie to a local contractor who would bad-mouth them down the road.)  Kitchen cabinets were delivered and are being painted a color to compliment the granite countertop (nothing in stock came close). We finalized all the doors, which sounds easy but we have 30 doors (exterior, interior rooms & closets, garage, showers)! We had to confirm things like which way they swing open and what the open-close mechanism will be. We also discussed exterior stairs construction. The house is 14 feet in the air, so two long set of steps (front and back) that have to stay out of the setback (recall we had an issue with being into the setback early in the build) and still look aesthetically pleasing. Lots of “what about” and “I’d really like.” And, the most exciting news, we have a “yes, this fall” completion target! 

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