Structure & Routine or Rhythm & Balance
There’s nothing like personal experience to actually understand a concept that might otherwise just make sense intellectually.
For a variety of reasons – mostly positive – the normal structure and routine of my days was recently thrown out the window.
Structure and routine is something that we humans need in our lives, and establishing some sort of structure and routine is important post-career. It can take time though to land on what works best for you and the lifestyle you’re pursuing.
I’ve chosen to keep working in my post-career and I think because of that, I defaulted to a daily routine very similar to my past life. Having that disrupted turned out to be a chance to get curious about how I was experiencing that change:
I slept in. Clearly, a lifetime of being a very early riser wasn’t as ingrained as I thought.
Without the small “p” purpose that comes with daily/weekly goals and to-do’s, I felt aimless but not in a good way.
I struggled to get started on anything. Since I get satisfaction from being productive and getting things done, this fed a low-level anxiety that made it even harder to get back on track.
Despite that bit of extra sleep, I was physically less energetic. That said to me that mental lethargy feeds physical lethargy in the same way physical activity feeds mental activity.
My attention span, never particularly long, was even shorter.
Boredom set in pretty quick but since I couldn’t get started on anything... well, you know.
Does any of that feel familiar? My business coach told me it sounded like I might be burnt out. What? Wait. I’m semi-retired.
Normally, I would do everything I could to find my way out of a state like this. But this time, I decided not to rush it to see what insights I could glean that might be useful to me and my clients. Coincidently, in a course I’m taking (Creating Futures That Work), one of our exercises had us drawing the “negative space” around an object without first outlining the object. Upon debriefing the exercise, I saw my temporary lack of structure and routine as a chance to explore negative space – the time and space between activities – in life. What might I be missing by always trying to minimize it?
The things I noticed during this experience are perhaps intellectually obvious. However, that doesn’t mean they’re always embodied and acted on. Here are a few things I noted:
Even though by virtue of age and taking a pension I’m technically “retired”, I need to keep finding ways to stretch myself in order to feel a sense of accomplishment. Many people approaching retirement say they will miss the ongoing opportunities to deal with new challenges in their work and the feeling of achievement when they solve them. So, having structure and routine isn’t about being “busy for busy’s sake”. It’s about supporting what you want to accomplish.
·I’ve come to see more clearly that small “p” purpose is only meaningful and motivating ie., resulting in something more than busy-work, if it’s tied to big “P” Purpose, that golden thread that connects and drives everything we do. Of course, it helps to know what that Purpose is so we can come back to it if we lose sight of it from time to time. Another important something to consider in your Third Act.
As I emerged from spending time in “negative space” I wondered if I needed to think about re-establishing structure and routine or rhythm and balance. The latter certainly sounds less restrictive and more nourishing if a bit harder to nail..
Like my clients, I’m on my own retirement journey. This recent experience is just another step forward on a path that has much to explore. When everything important that’s happening to you is new – from the rhythm of your days to the people you meet to the ideas you consume – you can either retreat to the old for comfort or explore the future from different perspectives. I think you know which of those will keep you growing and feeling positively engaged with your world.