I am busier than ever, in spite of the pandemic. I don’t leave my apartment except for occasional grocery shopping trips, walks with my wife, and bicycle rides. I retired from my 34-year financial planning career last December. I am fortunate that I can use my extra time to establish a new career as a retirement coach. My life feels full and fulfilling.
My friend Mitch is of retirement age and still working in his teaching / research job. He collaborates with faculty at the University over Zoom. His Zoom meetings seem like a pale shadow compared to his intensive, in-person discussions of the past. And his laboratory is shut down. He waits impatiently for the pandemic to be over.
Time will pass for Mitch and me and all of us. Will we look back at this as a meaningful time spent with our families or not?
We are all semi-quarantined. We have less control now over where we spend our time. But we still have a lot of control over how we spend it.
Time is one of our most important resources. We can spend it as we wish. But the deal is – we use it or lose it.
You may also be facing any number of challenges now, such as:
- Feeling stuck
- Dealing with illness or the fear of illness – for yourself and others
- Not enough money now or in the future
- Loneliness
- Not being able to do what you really want to do
Here are some questions for you:
- Which of these challenges is most important to you right now?
- How can you use your creativity to figure out how to proceed?
- Whom should you be talking with to figure out how to proceed?
- How can you use your time differently to make more progress on those challenges?