Thank you and a special shout out to Marcus Aureli…

Transcript

There's a saying from Marcus Aurelius that really helps in retirement. The saying is, what is in the way becomes the way, or something like that. It just means when something drops in your path and seems like an obstacle towards your destination, just make it part of your destination and part of your journey, and enjoy it as such. When you're retired and you learn to embrace that, it makes retirement so much more fun. And I'm going to talk about why that philosophy isn't so easy when you're working in a minute. But, for example, today I had a couple of things on the plate. I was going to finish up some wiring for a TV I put in. I kind of had it all mapped out in my mind what I was going to get done today. And then, out of nowhere, a groundhog situation emerged, as they do. Being retired, I was able to say, oh, looks like today's going to be a groundhog day. And I worked on my groundhog situation. And I didn't stress about the TV thing. That'll keep. I can do that some other time. And it's just so liberating. But, when you're working, I remember, because I was working for a very long time. And many of you watching this right now are working. You can't adopt that philosophy so easily. And I'm sure somebody could. But, I remember, I'd get home from work and I'd have like two hours to do something. And. Something would drop in my path. Something in the way. It was really hard to just make that part of the way. Because I didn't budget for that extra thing. And I remember the frustration and despair that would set in. Because I'd be like, oh man, I just wanted to get this one thing done. And now this stupid thing's in the way. It's just, I think, somewhat difficult to employ that philosophy when you're working. Because your budget of time is so finite. But once you retire, embrace that stuff. Because when else are you going to have the opportunity to just say, oh look, this is what my day's going to be today. That's cool. I'll do that. It's just so nice. Once you accept it and you sort of shed those shackles of to-do lists and schedules. And you can just say, wait a minute, I'm retired now. I don't have to get done what I set out to get done. I'm going to do something else today. Very, very liberating.