This Always Works - but more for senior citizens

As kids we like to do only what takes our fancy or what interests us. But as we grow older the list of must do things keeps becoming larger and larger. Parents instructing do this and don’t do that. Behave like this or you will get rebuke. It’s impossible to work out why we as kids are not allowed to mix with certain interesting people and why the home work from KG onward is so boring and still needs to be finished before the end of the day. The compromises go on and on from our early school to primary, middle, high school and on to the university. Along the way we also pick up our favorites – people, things, subjects, places, and relations in the family, books, smiles, flowers, poems and celebrities. However all these will have to be subservient to our demands of life. Such as job – we are all not lucky to have a vocation of our choice -, boss, colleagues and associates, neighbors and so on. For a big part of our life we keep struggling to reach for what we like to do within the constraints of what we have to do.  Most of us are struggling with this dynamics of life and are happy with some kind of sub optimal equilibrium. In many cases we change our attitude and feel convinced that what we have is the best for us.

Then comes a stage in life, where the constraints start disappearing – your job is no longer  there ( you have superannuated), professional life stresses are gone, you have steady though less income, it’s you and your wife only again in the house may be for the first time or after a long time. Now this is the time you must go for a kill – try 10 out of 10 for your happiness. Fish out the things you liked to do but could not or did not find time to do. It could be occasionally reading that story book, listening to the poetry, old songs and gazals. Start posting on to the blog you created years back, find old friends and communicate with them. Spend time with the friends and visit your children.

Do push your self a bit and form a monthly objective a little beyond yourself. But do not try the uncharted territoty. I for one never wanted to be hands on but am good at ideation. Now I indulge in the activities which allow me to do contemplation, ideation and problem solving in the academic and research. At 60 plus, as always, I still like to push my intellectual faculty but have no longer the demand of  going to office, pushing others for deadlines, leaving kids to school, reaching for work in time, preparing and pushing myself for activities pushed on to me …

I do what I am doing right now, writing this post, read  others blogs and comment on those, initiate or take part in Higher Education Forum, an online Google group, go for walks with my wife, improve my cooking skills and share the results with my children and grand children. Watch old movies together. Eating out is less but still I want to see the world – my wife willing! However embarking on journeys to explore India and beyond is still to planned though. Till then TLC and other channels will do!

Overall much happier than I was any time in my life so far.