Being connected with others is hugely important during retirement. The opposite of connected is lonely, which is no fun, plus it’s dangerous to your physical and mental health. In fact, loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
Work relationships, both colleagues and customers, disappear upon retirement. Because of the aging process, eventually you may have more losses from contemporaries dying, moving away, or taking care of family members and not having as much time for you.
At any age building and maintaining relationships requires intention and energy. Otherwise, entropy takes over – things fall apart.
There are a number of strategies you can use to form and strengthen your relationships in your post-work stage of your life.
- Feed your existing relationships. If they’re meaningful, they are worth investing your time. Now that I and many of my friends are vaccinated, I’m starting to get together with them – in person. I love it.
- Find existing groups to plug into. There are so many to choose from. They include community centers and faith groups. There are even whole communities – 55+, independent living – that build a variety of activities into a weekly schedule.
- Pursue your favorite activities. There are so many that you can do with others. Some examples are sports/exercising, card games, eating out (when you’re comfortable doing that), and clubs of all kinds (books, gardening, etc.)
- Cherish what you’ve learned about Zoom. You can meet with people far away without having to travel. You can even reconnect with people from your past this way.
- Meet random strangers. I have ventured outside my comfort zone and now do this routinely. I strike up conversations while walking around town and when I travel to far-away places, pandemic permitting.
Some of these may take some courage to start connecting with others. I find that not all interactions work out as I hoped, but some work out even better.
How do you want to connect with others in your retirement life?