So tired of doing nothing

R

Richardt_h

New Member
Location
South Africa
I am so tired of doing nothing. I have been working in the IT industry for 46 years, extremely active, well remunerated, well known, trusted advisor and extremely successful. I am now 67 years young and retired. These days the IT world is really for the younger generation, so no more place for me as an elderly. At age 66 I obtained my commercial pilots license with the view to become an instructor helping the younger generation to become pilots. Well I got the Commercial license but not the permission from Civil Aviation to become an instructor - eye and an earlier heart problem - so medical reasons preventing approval.

So I then started working again for a year recruiting executives for Executives Global Network (EGN). However, with the global economy currently at a real low, very few executives are joining and I have ended this venture. It has become to costly to visit 12-14 prospective executives weekly with such a low return.What I would really like to do is to be involved in something really spectacular - like working at SpaceX or working on one of the large US ships like the Ronald Reagan or something exciting like that. Something that really keeps me busy and help me to get rid of all the energy that I still have. What a mess. Retirement is NOT for sissies.:eek:nthego:
 
Bullie76 said:
Tough requirements to burn your energy. Glad golf, biking and hiking does the job for me. But we're all different.
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Yes we are all different. Also playing golf, but cannot play golf every day, twice a week. Hiking once a month. Travelling quite a lot and still are there a lot of gaps to be filled between all those activities.
 
Would you consider voluntary work Richard ? I'm sure there must be lots of places that would be more than glad of a driver or helper, I work for my local heritage site and they have all types of work on offer

Most libraries have a list of available voluntary work
 
There is a reality about retirement that falls into 3 catagories.
1. Ready and able to adapt to the loss of wage earned income.
2. Ready but still need the social interaction & income
3. Not ready, never thought about what to do when a job & social interaction was no longer filling the days.

Depending on where you live the opportunity to tutor the "younger generation" in the IT world would probably fill those hours for you. You are aware that Trump wants to decrease to use of cheaper foreign IT students here on work visas. What better way to use your abilities than to help train American "younger generation" in IT skills?

Maybe even online help/tutoring would be an avenue worth looking into.
 
Knight said:
There is a reality about retirement that falls into 3 catagories.
1. Ready and able to adapt to the loss of wage earned income.
2. Ready but still need the social interaction & income
3. Not ready, never thought about what to do when a job & social interaction was no longer filling the days.

Depending on where you live the opportunity to tutor the "younger generation" in the IT world would probably fill those hours for you. You are aware that Trump wnats to decrease to use of cheaper foreign IT students here on work visas. What better way to use your abilities than to help train American "younger generation" in IT skills?

Maybe even online help/tutoring would be an avenue worth looking into.
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Knight, thank you for your post. I find myself in South Africa about 70km from Johannesburg living on a golf estate. I think that I fall partly in catagory 2 - it is the missing of daily social interaction. Financially I am ok (well, at least for the next 20-30 years). Thing is how to create/add value to others and at the same time creates a sense of fullfilment for myself. You know to have a good valuable day.

The idea of tutor the younger generation is a great possibility. For the last 16 years of my working career I was in IT sales, very successfull. Selling all the various IT services like - cloud, outsourcing, infrastructure, project management, etc. I think that I should go back to my employer and offer my free services to them, helping the younger generation how to structure and close a deal. Teaching them all the sales gimmicks that I used to be successfull.
 
Good suggestion Richard and welcome to the senior forums. I don't know what country you are from but in the US you can keep track of those volunteer hours, tally the approximate wage you would have received, and use it as an itemized deduction from your taxes. Am I right about that? I think I am. I want to volunteer but haven't had time until now. Now I have to find my passion, match my talent with a need, and do it. I think I know what it is. I've enjoyed goofing off for 2 years and raising a little hell (not, lol) but it's time to reach out and be a helper and giver.
 
Sorry to hear you are struggling so much with retirement. I've been retired 5 years now (got early retirement at 60). I was a senior manager of a Children's Services department and had control of a large budget, 50 or so staff etc. It was high pressure, prone to crises erupting out of nowhere...and I loved almost every minute of it.

The first two years of my retirement felt much as you describe. I missed work - including the stress and pressure, like mad. Three more years on I am OK and more with it because:

I took up some serious hobbies. I acquired two dogs which require a lot of walking. I started to explore the wonderful countryside here in the north of England. I took on voluntary school governorships - and as my partner is still working took on a househusband sort of role. Also I got a bit older, slowed down a bit and remembered that the pressure and stress were actually very unpleasant at times - waking at 4.00 am worrying about work is no fun!

Work provided me with purpose and a reason to get up in the morning. It provided motivation that I lack generally speaking when it comes to my own interests. Dropping all that is tough for some of us - it was for me and I was bored out of my mind at times during the first two years. But now five years on I can't imagine where I would find the time to go back to work.

All the best on finding your way through it. It can be done!
 
That's rough... I remember a million years ago when my dad retired, he always said he hated it. He even went back to work consulting a couple times. Personally, I think I'm looking forward to retirement from my job. I hope I do not end up like my dad and despising it though...

I have my hobbies I'd like to focus on and I have a lot of friends in the community to keep me occupied.
 
Richardt_h said:
I am so tired of doing nothing. I have been working in the IT industry for 46 years, extremely active, well remunerated, well known, trusted advisor and extremely successful. I am now 67 years young and retired. These days the IT world is really for the younger generation, so no more place for me as an elderly. At age 66 I obtained my commercial pilots license with the view to become an instructor helping the younger generation to become pilots. Well I got the Commercial license but not the permission from Civil Aviation to become an instructor - eye and an earlier heart problem - so medical reasons preventing approval.

So I then started working again for a year recruiting executives for Executives Global Network (EGN). However, with the global economy currently at a real low, very few executives are joining and I have ended this venture. It has become to costly to visit 12-14 prospective executives weekly with such a low return.What I would really like to do is to be involved in something really spectacular - like working at SpaceX or working on one of the large US ships like the Ronald Reagan or something exciting like that. Something that really keeps me busy and help me to get rid of all the energy that I still have. What a mess. Retirement is NOT for sissies.:eek:nthego:
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Been retired for 4 years and still find myself in much the same boat as you. The dirty little secret about retirement is that all the hobbies, be they golf or something else, all the expected fun of having coffee or lunch with friends whenever you like, etc. -- all that ceases to be fun pretty quickly and aren't nearly as much fun when you aren't having to search for time to squeeze them in, if you know what I mean.

I do not miss my particular job (toxic environment at the last firm I worked for), but I DO miss the work, the challenges, the "aha moments," and I very much miss the social and collegial connections and camaraderie, all the "gallows humor" and other interactions, the being a valuable part of a team, etc. Frankly, I suppose I miss the feeling that I "matter."

So far, I haven't found anything that fills those voids. Most of the volunteer work available around here is junk work and/or grunt work, anyway, and none of it floats my boat.
 
Butterfly said:
Been retired for 4 years and still find myself in much the same boat as you. The dirty little secret about retirement is that all the hobbies, be they golf or something else, all the expected fun of having coffee or lunch with friends whenever you like, etc. -- all that ceases to be fun pretty quickly and aren't nearly as much fun when you aren't having to search for time to squeeze them in, if you know what I mean.

I do not miss my particular job (toxic environment at the last firm I worked for), but I DO miss the work, the challenges, the "aha moments," and I very much miss the social and collegial connections and camaraderie, all the "gallows humor" and other interactions, the being a valuable part of a team, etc. Frankly, I suppose I miss the feeling that I "matter."

So far, I haven't found anything that fills those voids. Most of the volunteer work available around here is junk work and/or grunt work, anyway, and none of it floats my boat.
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Exactly, no difference in our situations. Suppose the older one gets the better it will become. Well on my way to go watch motorsport to take a few pictures showing that the cars are in motion. Butterfly - maybe we should have a skype call, will be nice to chat to you. SkypeId richardt.human98
 
One of the reasons I struggled for the first couple of years of retirement was that I used work as a distraction and a 'purpose' in life. I don't personally believe that life has any intrinsic meaning (I have no religion etc.) and work was an end in itself. The job was satisfying in that generally speaking children ended up benefiting from what I and my organisation did.

Took me a while to learn just to 'be' and to accept that I no longer had goals, targets and a practical purpose in life.

I also found that if I was not careful I would sink into a downward spiral, with mild depression demotivating me to do anything to get off my backside because 'what's the point', leading to less mild depression. Nowadays I force myself to get my lazy ass out of the computer chair and out into the fresh air!
 
jujube said:
I've been retired for seven years now and I have to say I'm still enjoying it.......nothing to do and all the time in the world in which to not do it.

I have my busy days and I have my lazy days. Love my lazy days.
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1 ditto.gif Going on 8 years for me..My lazy days maybe a little different than yours..boat.gif
 
Richardt_h said:
Yes we are all different. Also playing golf, but cannot play golf every day, twice a week. Hiking once a month. Travelling quite a lot and still are there a lot of gaps to be filled between all those activities.
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Retirement is not for everyone. I'm good at doing nothing. ;) There is a salesman at my old company who is 92 years old. Has very few accts at this point, but they let him keep a few because he was such a good salesman and some customers still enjoy having him come around. And it gives him some structure and purpose. Probably why he has made it to such an advance age. I think my job would have killed me if I had kept going.
 
Richard, time to look hard at the man in the mirror. You are 67, and not a kid anymore. Not good material for an inexperienced commercial pilot, and not a fair thing to ask an employer like Space X to take a chance on and invest time and money in. (BTW they know better and won't) You aren't over the hill by any means but real career changes at 67 are probably just vanity. Am I being negative? I hope not. I think I'm being realistic. Responsible jobs aren't built on whimsy. It took me years of training, dedication and hard work. Unless I could guarantee myself and my employers that, and at 65 I can't, I couldn't and wouldn't even think to try. But good luck I wish you well.
 
Sorry you are not enjoying retirement like some of us do Richard. Some people and I believe men especially define themselves by their work. I couldn't wait to retire and did so at 50. Due to familial responsibilities plus just wanting to go places and do things, my husband and mother said I was busier in the first part of my retirement than when I was working. But it seems you have gone from one extreme to the other. Like someone pointed out, however, doing something spectacular (like SpaceX) may not be realistic at this point. How about doing something that at least gets you out of the house for a reasonable amount of time even if it’s not as challenging as what you retired from? Perhaps you’ll even meet interesting people while doing it. If you would like to continue working, these articles from the AARP website may give you an idea about how to go about finding work: https://search.aarp.org/gss/everywhere?q=jobs for seniors&intcmp=DSO-SRCH-EWHERE
Questions: Have you made a "bucket list"...things you've been wanting to do but didn’t have time for when you were working?
What is or are your passions? What, besides working do you love to do?
Is there a mentoring program in your area or someplace you can volunteer that would take up your time as well as be rewarding?
I hope you will find something(s) that make you fulfilled and happy. Nobody wants or should endure a life of boredom.
 
Richardt_h said:
I am so tired of doing nothing. I have been working in the IT industry for 46 years, extremely active, well remunerated, well known, trusted advisor and extremely successful. I am now 67 years young and retired. These days the IT world is really for the younger generation, so no more place for me as an elderly. At age 66 I obtained my commercial pilots license with the view to become an instructor helping the younger generation to become pilots. Well I got the Commercial license but not the permission from Civil Aviation to become an instructor - eye and an earlier heart problem - so medical reasons preventing approval.

So I then started working again for a year recruiting executives for Executives Global Network (EGN). However, with the global economy currently at a real low, very few executives are joining and I have ended this venture. It has become to costly to visit 12-14 prospective executives weekly with such a low return.What I would really like to do is to be involved in something really spectacular - like working at SpaceX or working on one of the large US ships like the Ronald Reagan or something exciting like that. Something that really keeps me busy and help me to get rid of all the energy that I still have. What a mess. Retirement is NOT for sissies.:eek:nthego:
Click to expand...

it appears that you never really learned how to play or just plain GOOF OFF and relax. There can be lots of excitement in playing.
 
I've been retired now for 9 and 1/2 years.

I have had no problem adjusting to it.

I was born to be a bum.:)
 
haha Trade

....Lots of retirees write books, create art (sculpture, pottery, paint, woodworking, etc), travel, and fine art photography...just for pleasure. They also are constantly into self-improvement via nutrition, juicing, gardening, fitness, fun exercise like biking outdoors. fishing, sailing, boating, hiking, camping, yoga, meditation. They also change their social life to meet new friends, dancing groups, day trips, volunteering.

I do gallery canvas paintings, sculptures, vacation at the beach only 2 hours away, groom my new year old puppy, play tiny soccer, frisbee, and tiny football with her, long walks, nutrition, juicing, farmers markets for fresh produce, looking for a bike, pool in the neighborhood so I go early or late to avoid kids, do patio container gardening for juicing greens and flowers, watch my investments, slowly purging the house in preparation to downsize one day...maybe.

Oh, and RELAX! (like my avatar)
 
OneEyeDiva, Thank you for the post and the AARP site is just great for new ideas. I will definitely look deeper into some of those options. I must say, since my initial post, I am coping much better with my retirement circumstances. About the boredom, I am winning.
 
If you've not already done so, check out the Road Scholar site (roadscholar.org) formerly Elderhostel or Exploritas. They do small group tours that lean toward the educational. It's energetic exploration with a small group of one's peers. Lots of choices as to locations, level of activity involved, size of group and, of course, cost.
 
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