How to Stay Productive

When I was growing up, I went to school to get an education. In those early years, I was busy studying and finding my way. I wasn’t thinking about being productive because I had a job, and that job was to go to school and learn.

After high school, I had to go to college to continue to learn, and I had to focus on my own growth, not just intellectually, but emotionally. And even after college, I did not feel that I had enough learning, so I went to graduate school. All along the way, I was very busy learning and growing and I felt productive.

Then, I went to work and work was demanding. I had lots of mentors, some good, some not so good, and it was a productive time leaning about business. Then, I found my wife, we married and we started a family. It was a very productive time making a living and raising children. I was working in business every day and sometimes overwhelmed with three responsibilities: finance, marriage, and children.

As my life progressed, my children found their own ways, my marriage stayed strong, my finances were adequate, and I looked forward to retirement. And finally, retirement did occur. All of the productive activities I was committed to slowly disappeared. I didn’t need to focus on supporting my children, I didn’t need to work and so my wife and I had more free time than previously. The question was – what do I do with all my free time? I wanted to stay productive, but now I had to find productive activities, and there was nothing obvious for me. I had to find my own way with thousands of possibilities.

I considered getting involved in charities, but no charity seemed the right thing to do. I thought that helping various Jewish organizations would be useful, and I did that for my synagogue and for a Jewish day school. I tried to stay in touch in business, and that did work for a short while as an expert, but my expertise shortly disappeared because I didn’t stay connected to the business world.

I tried teaching and that was productive for a short while. I made a few items in my wood workshop and then I ran out of ideas. My wife and I traveled for a few years, and that was always interesting, but it was expensive and more difficult as we got older. I wrote a few books for a couple of years, published them, but never wanted to promote them. It would never have been profitable to try to sell them.

I thought about playing the piano, but that seemed too demanding to become really good. I worked on fixing my model sailing ship, but that was finished in a few weeks. I started playing Texas Hold ‘Em with a local group and that is fun, but it only occurs once a month or so. I could write another book, and that is a real possibility, but I needed something else, and I don’t know what that something else is.

I see other people my age working out daily, walking, or going to a gym. I see other people studying Judaism alone or in groups and that can keep you busy all of the time. I could review all of my photographs and that would be a big assignment. I could take up my coin collection that I did when I was a teenager, but that is not appealing, I could take up cooking, but that is what my wife does, so I don’t want to impose on her.

I need a productive assignment, and I don’t have one. I need some advice. Give me some suggestions and I will consider doing some of them. When you’re retired, you have lots of choices … perhaps too many choices. I need to be productive! Give me some suggestions.