2017 Resolutions

I retired from full time work about two and a half years ago. For the last forty or so years I dreamed of having the time to do the things I felt I did not have the time to enjoy. There was always a meeting to prepare for, phone calls to be made, people to meet and places to go. Once the responsibilities and time commitments of a job were eliminated, I would have the opportunity to pursue the things that brought me happiness.

When it comes to finding time for hobbies, I have found that life after retirement can pose some of the same issues as work life. There are still always things that have to be done around the house. But, just by being home instead of at work I recognize more things that need attention. There are family responsibilities that cannot be ignored. Bills still have to be paid and errands need to be run. When I was working, some of these things were done on the way to or from work or maybe during the work day. Now it seems that if I do not set aside time to do the things I enjoy, these tasks and responsibilities can absorb a good part of the day.

My resolutions for this year involve setting aside time to do couple of the things I planned to do after I retired. I believe that if I make the resolution, I will be more likely to follow through.

The first is to do more writing. When I retired, I had planned to write articles and submit them to motorcycle magazines in the hope that they would be published. I took a writing class the first summer of retirement, but that was geared toward memoir type writing. I did write an article about a motorcycle trip I took out to Rocky Mountain National Park. I submitted it to the BMW Owners News, but did not get a response. About a year later I wrote a story about a ride I took in the local area. I had taken a lot of pictures with the idea of submitting it to the Harley Owners Group (HOG) publication. It turned out that I lost my wedding ring on the ride and that greatly diminished my interest in writing about it. But four months later a little girl found it on a city street. I wrote the story with the happy ending and submitted it to HOG. This went unpublished also. I have one more story about a trip around Lake Huron, but I have not submitted that one. I have started this blog as a way of getting started writing again on a daily basis.

The second resolution is to play more guitar. I started playing about twenty years ago. For a period of time I spent a good amount of time at it, but never became very good at playing. About a year ago I sold the two electric guitars I owned and bought a new Fender American Standard Deluxe. I have played it, but did not pick it up much at all from about June into the fall. I play an acoustic electric in a church group most weekends, but I have not played that as often as I had planned to after retiring. I really want to get back to practicing and learning some new riffs and songs. It seems as if I have been stagnant for too long and playing the same things all the time.

There are other things I plan to do this year, but those are the two that I feel I need to commit to and verbalize. Activities like reading, bicycling and of course, motorcycling, are things that I know I will do over the course of the year.

I plan to document my progress in keeping these resolutions along with writing about other things that occur in my ongoing pursuit of happiness.