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Reinventing retirement
A friend of mine makes a Big List every January. She puts
down things she wants to do, things she didn’t do in the previous
year, things she’s always been meaning to do. At the end of each
year, she ticks them off – or maybe puts them back on the list. She
sees this as her annual challenge.
laterlife is launching its own big Challenge for people
who are entering retirement. We kick off with the New Experiences
Challenge, which can be summed as doing something new, maybe
something you’ve always wanted to do in life, but never got round
to.
A recent round-up of topics from visitors to laterlife
revealed a great variety of aspirations, some to my mind rather
way-out.
‘Owning a racehorse’? Well, yes if you can afford it. I can
imagine the pride and pleasure if it became a winner (and the
financial reward). And the excitement over every race.
One that I particularly liked was ‘Keeping chickens, possibly
to breed and show’. Not that I would want to do it myself. Messy and
noisy and too much like hard work. But it would be a big
achievement. And you’d know that the eggs are free range and
organic.
I also like ‘Starting one’s own retirement club with monthly
events, each member being responsible for organising an activity’.
This could be fun. How would you start? Perhaps by asking friends to
participate, advertising, getting some free publicity in a local
paper.
‘Learning to skate on ice’ is nice – wouldn’t mind that one for
myself. ‘Hot air ballooning’. No, though you would get some fabulous
views and could even win a trip as a prize when entering the
Challenge.
‘Collecting badges, attending exhibitions’. This person said
that since he had retired he entered competitions for tickets and
has been quite successful in getting them. At least badges don’t
take up much room.
What all of these ideas reveal is that there is life after
retirement, and what a wonderful life that can be. Help reinvent
retirement by taking up the laterlife Challenge.
In the next few months there will be other, alternative Challenges
and major prizes to be won.
The Challenge is very flexible in the choice of what you do
and it’s open to everyone, whether you are already retired, you are
taking early retirement or just planning retirement.
Click here to find out more:
challenge.htm
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Talkback is a
regular feature in laterlife.com run by
journalist and author Helen Franks. 
