Stress Less in Early Retirement
I had breakfast with my brother Friday and lunch with one of my old friends. One was stressing out about the slow economy and political issues, while the other was stressing over too much work. While I completely understand the gravity of these issues, I have a much calmer reaction. I have finally learned to let go of the things I cannot control and to concentrate on the things I can. Life is way too short to freak out over the news on TV every night.
Chose Tranquility
It’s not like I don’t care about the state of our nation or how people are being affected by the economy and inflation. I actually care a lot. I have no practical way to change these things and stressing over them won’t help anyone in any way, especially not me and my family. So, while I am very aware of these issues, I don’t let them get me down. I am concentrating on health, happiness and prosperity right now and stress isn’t good for any of these things.
My early retirement has dramatically reduced the stress in my life, because I’m no longer worried about my job responsibilities and my company going out of business. What is surprising to me is that I am way more sensitive to how much others are stressed out around me. Practically everyone I talk to is stressing about something, mostly work or finances. I’m starting to realize that was me too a short time ago and now I’m finally free from that pressure.
Savor Life
There is an old saying about life being a journey and not a destination. That is the advice I’m living right now. I went camping this week with my wife and took a nice hike through the Alabama Hills. I realized camping on a Monday morning instead of commuting into work is something I needed to do a lot more in the past, but I was never able to balance a demanding job with my personal freedom. I am only now realizing all the sacrifices I made over the past 40 years, to pay the bills and feed my family. I am proud of all I have accomplished, but happy to turn the page.
I have started my overdue journey of life and moved my retirement destination up by nine years. I am beginning to savor life, instead of answering emails and taking calls. My calendar is full of vacations and lunches with friends, instead of work meetings and deadlines. My life isn’t perfect and I have never expected it to be. I don’t expect my retirement to be perfect either. I realize the hard times I faced have made the good times sweeter and the freedom even more precious. Life now holds the wonder and amazement I have always dreamed of living.
The Bottom Line
Life is short and it rarely unfolds the way people expect. If you are fortunate, you may have a life full of blessings and prosperity. If you stress over every little thing, you may squander that beautiful gift that is your life.
“Happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy. There’s going to be stress in life, but it’s your choice whether you let it affect you or not.” – Valerie Bertinelli
Over the years, living simply in our lower-earning times helped us prepare against hard times as our incomes grew. I want to instill that in my adult kids, because at this point, no matter what happens, although we’d have to make some adjustments, we’d survive pretty much anything.
That’s great advice Nancy. I always encourage my adult kids to save up an emergency fund, because I’m old enough to know the bad times come, sooner or later. Happy New Year.