When I retired, I didn't think I had any hobbies or many outside of work interests. Being a workaholic had me working too many hours and then off-work hours, still being in the mental space of work with work-based reading or thinking about projects. But I’ve recently come to the awareness that I was an amateur gardener … Continue reading A Retirement Hobby
When we made the Big Move to Florida I started a “Tourist in my Own Town” Possibilities List. This list came about for a few different reasons. I realized as we were leaving Cincinnati that there were a number of things locally I had always said I would do “someday” and never did. I didn’t … Continue reading Tourist in Own Town – Two Year Review
While I have not picked a word of the year (WOTY) in a number of years, if I had to choose one right now, it would be SAVOR. This word captures a number of elements that pop up in articles about happiness, kindness, wellbeing, positivity, longevity, etc. To savor, you need to slow down and … Continue reading Savoring Summer
I’ve written in my Retirement Transition book (see link on amazon here) about understanding “what does a house mean to you?” as part of your retirement transition. So many folks in retirement move houses, whether it is to relocate to someplace they always wanted to live, to downsize space no longer needed, or to reduce … Continue reading GoodBye Goldie – Hello Lissa
There’s a meme about how old you are when you realized things. I just realized that the astrological summer season starts on the longest daylight hour day of the year, which means summer days are all about fading daylight hours. Before this I always equated summer with long daylight hours, when in fact spring has … Continue reading summer solstice
In my retirement transition journey, I’ve explored the area of positive psychology in a number of different ways. First, early on in my retirement, I intentionally tried to shift from being a critical, cynical pessimist to a more positive person. I had a boss once say to me, ”You’ll never be happy”. I really wanted … Continue reading Practicing Positivity in my Retirement Years – a Reflection
This spring, for the first time in a long while, I did not create any kind of seasonal plan. No action plan, no possibilities list. I did continue to track “new experiences” as well as books read and new recipes tried. I use my tracking not for goal achievement, but to allow myself to look … Continue reading Spring Review and Summer Planning
Winter was a whirl of emotions, many of them negative. My Winter Possibilities List had so many things I did not check off, it was disheartening. I tell myself it’s only about possibilities, but still. So, I am taking a tool from the Self-Talk book learning (link here) and applying it to March. Can I … Continue reading March ReCap and April Planning
In 2022, my focus was all about learning to live in Florida full-time. I called my blog Retirement Transitions, and this was a really big transition for our retirement. We have been living in Florida full-time for 19 months and I do feel like we have settled in well. I am coming to terms with … Continue reading 2022 Year in Review
It continues to be a challenge for me to think about seasonal changes here in Florida. Even in December, I am in shorts and flip-flops most days with high temperatures in the 80s (in F, that’s mid 20’s C). I’m not wearing Christmas sweaters; I'm buying Christmas T-shirts! This year I shifted focus to seasonal … Continue reading Fall to Winter Transition
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