The Dangers of Early Retirement

It has been ages since I last wrote a blog post. We left Brisbane in December and it is now nearly June. I had thought that I would be in holiday mode for just a few weeks, but I have overextended my laziness. It is true that when you are retired you can do whatever you want, but who really wants to sit around and do nothing all the time. I want to be able to make some sort of difference and not have just wasted space. Then ain't going to happen sitting around and navel-gazing.

I haven't entirely been doing nothing the whole time. It is true that I had my fair share of relaxing and taking it easy. I helped my brother out around the farm, mending and putting up fences, weed cutting, digging trenches and mowing paddocks. Sometimes I wondered if I was helping or getting in the way, but it's the thought that counts. We have also had to deal with a shockingly bad tenant. Our lives were turned upside down trying them out of our house so we could fix the mess they made. We had to deal with this before we could move on with our lives. We moved into that property we owned and painted, hung a front door, concreted outside and inside for a kitchen bench top etc etc. So, I wasn't a total lazy slob.

All this is all very well and good to justify my distractedness, but it hasn't moved me closer to my goals at all. It is very easy to drift when you have no set time frames.

I have actually pre-written a lot of blog posts and I could have scheduled them to go out over the last few months. But I got so distracted and thought I would start next week, but next week turned into next week again and again. I've also written a book that has taken me years to put together. It's been sitting gathering dust for the last few months even though it is ready to be launched.

So, the dangers of early retirement are not that you won't do anything (because you will still feel like you are busy). It's more that you will be busy with unimportant things. Don't get me wrong, those things I did were important (especially the fencing). But they were all insular, all for myself. It doesn't affect anyone, help anyone, change anyone. That's what I want to do as well as stuff that needs to be done. So, I'm back. It's going to be different. I am going to have that balance and do that which will help others too. And writing this blog is a part of that.