While on our 2015 Caribbean cruise, I made up my mind that, on return home, I was going to become more active and engaged in life.

I took out a gym membership and attended faithfully early every morning to resume my power walking on the treadmills and elliptical machines. Once spring arrived and the outdoor temperature was conducive, I chose to do my morning power walks outdoors.

I hadn’t done much with my direct sales business over the winter months, so I re-committed to “working my biz”. I teamed up with a good friend in my down line, and we did weekly road trips to introduce this new biz and product  to every town and city in our area. We didn’t experience a lot of success in terms of signing up new recruits, but the experience increased our confidence in explaining our product and the mission of the company. We attended many markets and had good sales there, booked home pop-ups, and generated lots of interest in our biz. The “Do Good” mission of the company was what had attracted me in the first place, and this was the part of promoting the product that I loved the most.

In addition, I developed a house cleaning schedule and followed it faithfully. This worked well to bring some structure and routine back to my life.

I resumed my photography hobby and began spending time again on photo editing. I purchased a new DSLR camera and a couple of lenses and took time to learn how to use them.

I’ve always loved writing, so I started to keep a journal in order to fulfill this passion.

I was no longer just a pile of rocks. There was more to me than that and I began to feel good again about the ability to acquire new skills. It felt good to offer something of myself and do some good in the process. My career in nursing had afforded those things to me over the years – always learning new skills and doing good. The biggest plus was that getting moving again (another thing that had been a major part of nursing), rejuvenated me. I purchased a Fitbit to track my steps and managed to get my goal (10,000 steps per day) completed before noon each day. Along with the morning power walks, I returned to eating a healthy diet – no more kernel corn right out of the can. I began to eat 3 squares per day with snacks in between. 

I broke off my relationship with Netflix, and didn’t turn the TV on until later in the evening. I had no desire to couch-sit. The morning walks energized me for the entire day.

I believe that all of these things played a part in lifting my post-retirement blues. With 20-20 hindsight, I would have continued at least the regular exercise as soon as I retired. The exercise alone led to the energy to do all of the other things.

Re: My featured image –  While I was reviewing past travel photos for inspiration for this post, this one spoke to me.  This is hubs studying the rocks at the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site near Gila Bend, AZ.  This is definitely an interesting place to visit – much more than just a rock pile. 

https://www.blm.gov/visit/painted-rock-petroglyph-site

“But who bothers looking beyond the surface? Who even knows anything about Cinderella’s Prince Charming – other than he’s a handsome prince?”

— Mandy Hubbard