Skip to main content

Life As an Imposter

One thing that makes the idea of retirement so scary is this:

We are trying something new.  We have no idea how to do it.  Each morning, we wake up to face the fact that our day will be totally up to us.

That's frightening for many of us, whose days were dictated by the demands of work, family, and routine.  Once we retire, it's up to us.

I've been testing out the waters of retirement.  As a teacher, I have summers off.  It's like a mini-retirement, a time that allows me the luxury of little structure, and where the day is designed by me.

I tried leaving my summer relatively open this year.  When June 1 arrived, I felt hopeful and excited.  At last, I would have the time to:

  • Organize and clean my house
  • Exercise and eat right
  • Spend time with my radio hobby
  • And, most importantly, write
I don't suppose that it would surprise anyone that NONE of that was accomplished very well.  Instead, I watched a lot of TV, read OTHER people's books, and spent entirely too much time on the Internet.

What went wrong?

I had plans, but little discipline.  When I woke, it was too easy to avoid showering and dressing until later in the day.  My computer acted like a Hoover, sucking me into a chair for long periods of aimless surfing.  With all that time, I began to procrastinate in a major way.

As a result, other than short blitzes of productivity, I did very little with that precious gift of time.

Part of the problem was that I felt, and acted, like a Wanna-Be, rather than an Already-Was.  I fell victim to the Imposter Syndrome.  I didn't believe that I was adequate, therefore, I began looking for more information to help me manage.  Hence, the descent into computers and books.

There is a TEDTalk that addresses how to improve your performance in many ways. See it here. 


 Here is more about the Imposter Syndrome.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Reason to Write

This post sparked mine today. I've been writing (slowly, one anecdote at a time) my memories of my youth, and the stories that I remember being passed down from parents, grandparents, and other long-lived people. I was fortunate - in my mother's family, old age was the default - my grandparents were born in the 19th century, and passed on stories of their youth. My father's family was equally long-lived, but not as talkative (WV vs. Irish-descent). Still, I have an aunt by marriage whose passion is genealogy, and who had compiled a bookshelf of clippings, copies of newspaper stories, and charts of the family, back to pre-Colonial times. If you aren't on Ancestry.com (and, I don't blame you - the price has risen shockingly!), you might want to use a word processing program or app - Google Docs is easy to use, and can be shared with others easily - to write down your memories - personal, or what has been told to you. If you'd rather, set up a videocam, and...
2 comments
Read more

Off the Fence

It's official. I submitted my retirement letter today. Already heard back from Benefits. I do feel relieved. Actually making a decision is less stressful than avoiding making one. I'm going to spend the rest of this week catching up on grades, making notes about what to take and what to pitch, and planning for the transition.
2 comments
Read more

Managing the Paper Onslaught

Almost every day, I find 3-8 solicitations in the mail, that are tied to my age/approaching retirement.  Every one of them is designed to separate me from my money. Medicare ads Hearing aid offers Insurance ads Financial planning ads Mortgage refi offers Retirement property/retirement community flyers I generally junk most.  A few I put into a folder, to be looked at when the need arises.  I wonder what percentage of the senior population acts on these offers. I've divided my mail into groups: Current bills - they go into the slotted dividers, to be acted on/paid when due Information - two types Tax info - in the box to be taken to the accountant after the first of the year Long-term information - put into folders, and file away until needed Junk - toss/shred and toss Personal - my choice By far the biggest group is junk.  I resist the temptation to load up on debt by immediately tearing the credit offers into pieces. The same with re...
Post a Comment
Read more