Looking for that elusive PURPOSE in retirement

[ncbill]

I think you're probably right. Once retired, you just have more time to dwell on the other human issues (such as purpose) which were always there but got partially drowned out by w*rking all the time.

 

[Calico]

It's like you have a mic in my head!

 

[foxfirev5]

Sandwich generation here. Between DM and GK's and life we have no reason to search for a purpose.

 

[zl55lz]

Maybe other words to use would be a passion in retirement rather than a purpose. Many people appear to equate "purpose" with "work" and that does not appear to be what the original poster meant.

A passion, a meaning, a reason can be whatever fulfills one's deepest core--a reason to get up in the morning, etc.

 

[O2Bfree]

Purpose in life in general is subjective. You can find meaning and purpose in all kinds of things: beliefs, helping others (especially if they appreciate it), etc. Meaning is an abstract concept in your head, but that just makes finding it all the more impressive (to me anyway).

This seems true to me. How does a Venus flytrap "know" to snap shut when a fly touches its trigger hairs? It probably doesn't have a sense of meaning or purpose as we know it, just an electrical system that releases a charge when the hairs are disturbed—a more complex version of lightening striking when conditions are right.

Multiply that system billions of times in a hunk of organic tissue and include the ability to store information, plus input from multiple "trigger" systems—our five senses and the sense of thought—and you get complex survival behaviors, including thought-sensations that trigger feedback systems of feel-good chemicals when we do things that support our psychophysiologically existence. Voila, a sense of purpose!

 

[tmitchell]

My purposes include travel, landscape photography, reading, and listening to music with a glass of my favorite red. For example, we have been to 47 of the 63 national parks (so far).
.
The Wave, Arizona
Seljalandsfoss, Iceland
Grand Teton NP
Great Sand Dunes NP
Torres del Paine, Chile
Glacier NP

Beautiful shots!

 

[FloridaJim57]

Well said

I have never felt the need to have a purpose in retirement.

As he said in Blazing Saddles "Now, who could argue with that?"

 

[RxMan]

I would like to bear fruit and follow the straight path in front of me.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:6

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Proverbs 19:21

 

[Gumby]

I imagine you would want to do that whether retired or not.

 

[Koolau]

I imagine you would want to do that whether retired or not.

Amen

 

[GhostofTomJoad]

My purpose in retirement is to enjoy not having a schedule to keep every day.