Senior to Senior: Have a Plan

New retiree or old, you might be wondering what comes next. Are you totally invested in filling every minute, or are you sitting in a chair doing nothing? If you are the former you know all about having plans, but if you find yourself in the “do nothing” category, you may be struggling. It’s not too late to make plans; not the usual end-of-life stuff, which should be a given, but a plan for “living.” Everything has changed. Your workdays have come and gone, and if you have turned family responsibilities over to someone else, you are probably bored. Being bored is deadly. If you don’t have a plan for living, others are going to make them will for you. Before you know it, well-meaning friends, family, and perhaps social service folks, are going to want to intervene. What if you could deflect their interest by saying, “No thank you. I have other plans.” “Having plans” is a polite way of saying that you have a life. You shouldn’t have to fake an illness in order to excuse yourself from a boring activity. Not to mention that if you fake an illness, well-meaning friends will leap to all sorts of conclusions. They may think you are having a stroke or are a little bit daft. Before you can protest, you may find yourself in an ambulance trying to explain yourself to well-meaning EMT’s. Most people are nosey and won’t be happy with a generic “plans” excuse. You need to do better than that. If you really don’t want to go to the mall or attend another baby shower, you need to have a real plan to fall back on. What’s it going to be? What are you interested in? There must be something that you always wanted to do. Keep in mind that your plan must be real, not just a cover story. Your plan doesn’t have to be awe inspiring. It can be as simple as finishing a craft project, going to the library, writing in your journal, reading a book, or meeting a friend for coffee. Just the idea of having a plan can serve you well.