In January we uprooted the family from Wellington and moved to a small rural town to the south of Whangarei that is home to less than 3,000 people. The reason behind the move was wanting to slow down life and to be part of a community. We found that hard to achieve living in Wellington.

We are stoked with our move so far. We are walking distance to our daughters school and often bike her in each day. We are a 5 minute drive from a beautiful beach. We have neighbours that actually talk with us! The neighbours have been so welcoming, even willing to give us their eggs from their chickens and fruit from their trees. When we have our own developed garden, we should be able to set up a little community of neighbours who can swap food at will. It sounds small, but it is those small things that make me content with life. Knowing that there is so much good in the world is much easier to see here than a larger city. And time indeed does seem to go slower with everyone not in so much of a rush. The quality of life has vastly improved.

The point of all this is to say I have taken up tennis again. A sport I haven’t played in over 20 years, since my early 20’s. I don’t think I would ever have the time to play regular tennis in Wellington like I am now. The time spent traveling in traffic, the poor weather, and the cost. Here it is good value cost wise, within walking distance, and runs all year round. The people that are members there make it a great time too by regularly firing up the BBQ and having the odd beer.

Tennis is a sport that I used to love all through my childhood. I regularly played, but as I left college, my tennis playing almost stopped completely as the lure of University provided too many other temptations for my spare time. Then work happens, then family and kids. All of a sudden years pass by and I go for a huge amount of time not playing my favourite sport at all.

Tuesday evenings are now one of my favourite times of the week where I get to play some social tennis. My experience of tennis now is different than when I was a kid, but it is still great. Just different. I am enjoying it from a new lens all over again.

Find your childhood passions for an exciting retirement

When people retire they often struggle to find an identity because they have no passions or interests out of work. Similar to my experience, work, life and family take up a lot of time and the years roll into one. Before we know it, many years have passed and what we used to love doing has been all but forgotten.

So for anyone struggling in retirement with what to do with your new found time, think back to what you enjoyed doing when you were younger. Many times, a lot of peoples first passions do stand with us for life. Sometimes we just have dig very deep to rekindle that flame though.

Of course there are also a lot of things we do when younger that were silly (Goosebumps books), fads (chatter rings), or very physically demanding (weight lifting). I am not referring to that. Things that you had a long lasting passion for are what you look for. Maybe it’s reading books, art or writing. Perhaps it is singing, playing an instrument, performing or just riding a bike.

If at all possible, try to rekindle those passions before you retire so then come retirement you don’t have to waste time figuring it out. You can hit the ground running so to speak.

Whatever the case may be, when you are feeling a bit lost in retirement, the first place I would recommend looking for a spark is from your childhood. Retirement is the perfect time to reconnect with passions left behind.

If you need help with your personal retirement planning, then get in touch today.

The information contained on this site is the opinion of the individual author(s) based on their personal opinions, observation, research, and years of experience. The information offered by this website is general education only and is not meant to be taken as individualised financial advice, legal advice, tax advice, or any other kind of advice. You can read more of my disclaimer here