Many senior citizens launch into retirement with what seems to be an unstoppable joie de vivre, planning to keep busy with rounds of golf, trips, time spent with the grandchildren, and catching up with the never-ending pile of books accumulating on the night stand. What sometimes happens, though, is that once seniors actually settle into retirement, they find that they never knew how many hours there actually were in the day until they had to fill them with leisure.
Although leisure does make us happy in small doses, the science behind happiness seems to suggest that work (especially voluntary work) contributes greatly to our happiness, a fact which often comes as an unpleasant surprise to recent retirees.
As Business Insider puts it, “the idea that working may be a significant contributor to your happiness and well-being is more surprising. After all, it’s something that many people spend their entire lives aspiring to retire from.” Senior citizens especially, who have worked their entire lives so that they could spend their twilight years in relative leisure, are often surprised to find that the lack of useful purpose in their daily life greatly diminishes their enjoyment in the day.
The solution to this quandary is not necessarily to take a head-on plunge directly back into the full-time labor market, but perhaps to consider part-time or freelance opportunities that allow for small amounts of time to be set aside for gainful employment, but which still leave the bulk of your retirement for well-earned rest and refreshment.
Some good options to consider are the many online writing opportunities for seniors. Companies hosting blogs and frequently updated websites are always in need of writers to keep their sites in ship shape.
For more information on joining BlogMutt’s stable of well-seasoned writers, please read check out the writer-information page, and see if an online writing job is a good fit for you.