The List!

(Capital “T” – Capital “L”)

Note to self – a New Year’s resolution. 

If you keep telling people you blog, you should actually, you know …. blog. 

Better yet, you might perhaps try updating said blog on a regular basis.

Like now. 

Before it gets any later than the beginning of February.

So here I am, trying not to make too big a liar out of myself – blogging!!

I wish I could use the same excuse I used about this time last year, about being too distracted and unfocused to concentrate on …. well, to concentrate on anything at all, let alone updating blogs.

But this fall/winter, I seem to have the opposite problem.  Too many projects and really, really, good ideas chasing each other around in my brain like rabid squirrels.  And not nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish anything to my real satisfaction.

All thanks to that annoying, pesky List.

You know, that “list” I keep droning on and on and on about in these postings (my list, your list, The List).  Three years retired and I am casting a more thoughtful and discerning eye at My List.  Items are being crossed off of that list.  And some very interesting items have made their way on  …..

But before I start bragging about the flotsam and jetsam now on my list, maybe I should explain how my “list” came together in the first place.

I really did start thinking about my list about five years prior to my actual retirement date.  Once I had figured out that financially, I could actually make early retirement work, I began starting a lot of sentences and day-dream fantasies with the phrase “when I retire, I will …….”.

And I actually did start to write down all of those day-dream fantasies, all of those things I wished I had time to do, didn’t have the time to do, wished I could see, etc., etc., etc.

And by “write down”, I mean I “wrote” them down on an actual piece of paper with an actual pen.  Not in an electronic organizer, not on an imaginary blackboard in my head, but on a physical piece of paper. 

Every time I thought of something I wished I could be doing, instead of going into work, I wrote it down.

So starting now, every time you think of something you wish you could be doing, but don’t have the actual time to do because you are still working full-time - write it down.  


Start to list the books you want to read, the CD’s you want to listen to, the DVD’s you want to binge watch.  


Or maybe it’s something more practical like finally getting to the weeds in the back garden.  


Or wishing you could sign up for that yoga class that only seems to happen on a weekday afternoon.

Or maybe it’s as big and grand as visiting the Louvre, getting a food truck, or going on a cross-country road trip. 

Start making a list all of the things, that on a daily basis, you simply like to do.  Gardening, photography, jogging, yoga, reading, woodworking, sports, volunteering, bike riding. 

If you’re stuck and really can’t think of anything to put on your list (and some may be), one of the retirement planning books I read (and I really wish I had written down the title and author**), suggested starting with these four categories:

- activities that I enjoy now

- activities that I enjoyed in the past

- new activities I have thought of doing

- activities that will get me physically fit

Give retirement a think in terms of these categories and you might be surprised at the eventual look of “Your List”!

I will admit that in the beginning, I may have thought of my “list” as more of a lark, a way of annoying everyone in the office.  But once I actually retired, I was happy I had “My List”.  When I was stuck or I stumbled, The List reminded me why I had retired in the first place.    


And I will be honest, there are items that have disappeared from my list all together and probably will not be making a return appearance, like my wanting to desperatelt snag a gig as a tour guide at the Mattamy Centre.  (For one thing, who has the time any more!)

But many more items and activities have found their way onto my list (like bird watching and the fact that I think I can design myself a butt-kicking hat for this year’s Steampunk Festival!)

But it’s okay if “The List” - your list, my list - starts growing and changing – we’re retired!!

(**the book may have been “How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free” by Ernie Zelinski and the exercise may have called “Get a Life Tree”.  I’ll show you my “Get a Life Tree” if you’ll show me your’s!)

(and just a reminder, a year-end budget review should have been everyone’s New Year’s resolution!  Gasoline prices are down, but as a type II diabetic, those fresh fruit and veggie prices are wreaking havoc with my grocery budget!)