Battling The Retirement Treadmill
Battling The Retirement Treadmill
Apparently, I can’t get enough of treadmills. I talk about them constantly. I have discussed the hedonic, stoic, and achievement treadmills in the past. The problem is that the brain’s production of contentedness hormones depends on constant change. No matter how wonderful a purchase, achievement, or state of mind is, it quickly shifts into the default state. The happiness juices disappear, and it just becomes a new baseline. This is downright frustrating. Especially for those aspire towards RE. It is a strange kick in the face when you realize that indeed there is a retirement treadmill also.
Even retirement, the goalpost among goalposts, won’t exactly make you happy. It might for a few days or months. But those darn brain chemicals are unlikely to obey long term.
Here is how I plan to deal with it.
Routine
I know it’s counterintuitive, but the brain likes routine. In fact, I believe this is one of the key aspects of being content. Yes, we strive for new experiences. Yes, the idea of traveling constantly holds sway. But what really makes us feel good is having a certain expectation for how the day is going to go.
Even when out and about, certain routines help set the tone for the day. I generally try to wake up at the same time (4:45am), exercise at least an hour, and write for thirty minutes every day. No matter what. Regardless if I am in town or out.
These habits are an anchor, and strangely fight the grasp of the retirement treadmill. Even in this most free of life periods, having some constraints and routine is necessary.
Challenge
Let’s face it, part and parcel of the work experience is facing challenges. On most days. We have to rise to some occasion or another. This is especially true if you are moving up the corporate ladder, building a business, or striving to the upper echelons.
Similarly, avoiding the retirement treadmill means building challenge into your post work life. This can be physical or mental. The trick is to choose challenges that create some tension, but also don’t push the stress meter too far.
Podcasting is the perfect solution for me. It provokes of mix of fear and excitement that is perfect at this stage of my life. I still get butterflies before each recording, and yet I don’t find myself tossing and turning at night worrying about it.
Hobbies
I know. Who hasn’t heard this advice before? You need something to retire too. I am not wowing anyone with this advice, but there are some caveats.
The hobbies you pursue post retirement should be pure joy. There should be no stress involved. They should be activities that you can do for hours on end. Pick up at a moment. And drop just as quickly.
For me, this is reading fantasy fiction and mystery novels. I could do this all day. It is a guilty pleasure, except there is none of the guilt. I have carved out plenty of time each day to curl up with a book.
This is key in fighting the retirement treadmill. It is the go to activity instead of the TV or just abject laziness. It is your quick hit of pleasure that can be turned on or off with little energy.
Final Thoughts
Even retirement can get old. There is a retirement treadmill just like everything else. I suspect routine, challenges, and hobbies are just some of the ways to combat this strange phenomenon. I guess I could have added projects also. There is something glorious in a nice short term project.
Either way, your stubborn brain chemicals are fairly abstinent. You have to whip them into shape.
If you want to be happy, at least.
Having been retired for over 25 years, I settle for secure and content. When I want more, I go looking. Thanks for the post.
Sounds like after 25 years, you have figured out the right balance.
I have found retirement to be more of a kaleidoscope than a treadmill. I work out on a treadmill every day. I use a treadmill because it provides a perfectly consistent basis for exercise. It allows predictability of my gate and surface and that wards off injury. I use a weight vest. That adds metabolic load and tames the need for speed. Speed leads to injury. I use elevation and duration. Elevation increases the metabolic load in a squared kind of way exponential instead of linear, and time extends the experience. I use the exercise time for meditation, contemplation and prayer. I experience my heart rate and respiratory rate and depth of respiration. CO2 production and hence heart rate and respiratory dynamics are directly driven by metabolic load. Diet is involved in metabolic load. If you are burning ketones your CO2 production and hence respiration etc is way less than with a carbohydrate based reality. You can tell it directly in the ease of exercise. Ketones are far easier than carbs for the same metabolic load because they produce less CO2 and therefore less acidosis. I limit my time to multiple shorter stints instead of one long stint. Less chance for repetitive motion injury. The point? Treadmills are not bad things or good things. Brain chemistry is not a bad thing or a good thing. They are things, to be woven into a reality moving forward. How much do you miss by getting on the treadmill and then copping attitude “oh God here I am on this freakin treadmill”. The only thing wrong with a treadmill is a bad attitude. Oh God here I am stuck workin for the man, Oh God here I am toughing out another year front loading my way to wealth etc etc. Notice how many degrees of freedom my treadmill story had. Diet, elevation, speed, time, frequency metabolic loading, a means to measure stress, a means to avoid injury. The benefit of living on the inflection point, not above it or below it, is your life is most efficient.
The efficient life is living at the inflection point. Staying at the point is what’s hard.
Great point about retirement treadmilling. For challenges my wife and elected to have quests that are physically demanding throughout our lives. We used to run marathons together, she still can, I have an unhappy knee that prefers eight mile runs to 26 mile ones now. Eight years ago we elected to bushwhack to all 120 waterfalls listed in the Arkansas waterfall book. This week we chalked off four of the last five, over four days of hiking, leaving only one more to go. Brutal scrambles over broken bluffs, briar thickets and steep terrain were the norm and it was rare to be able to get to more than one or two a day, with most being several hours drive just to get to the starting point. Also to really see them at their best meant hiking in the rain and usually in the winter with temperatures in the 20’s and 30’s. Since we are only one hike away from finishing we are already tossing around ideas for the next quest, probably hiking from the east border with Oklahoma all the way to Tennessee on the Ozark Highlands trail. In any event it has been fun to have slightly extreme goals that push us out of our comfort zone and that we can do together. Podcasting is fun as a guest, I’ve been on several of them, but I cannot imagine how much more challenging hosting one would be. Your’s is excellent by the way!
Thanks for the positive input. I like your style of challenge. Physical challenges continue to bring happiness for me and hopefully will be a big part of my future.