Variety is the Spice of Life

I knew it had been a while since my last blog post, I just hadn’t realised how long. But that kind of fits in well with my topic this time – how I’m dealing with the fact that I have so many things to do and not enough time!

One of the things I was really looking forward to in retirement was having the time to spend doing all the things I wanted to do but couldn’t because I didn’t have enough time. I was spending all that time going to work. I had so many ideas, things I wanted to try, things I wanted to get better at. It was exciting to think I could do them – at last!


One interest - doing cross-stitch

Another interest - making cards

But, and of course there is a but, it hasn’t worked out that way. Yes, I have way more time to do all those things, but I still don’t have enough time. Maybe I have too many ideas, too many things I want to try, too many things I want to get better at. Maybe I should cut things from the list. But which should I cut?

laying out for the coffee table I
started over a year ago

Maybe I should focus on just a few things, and give them more time. Then I could do them “properly”. I’ve heard the phrase that it takes “10,000 hours of practice to perfect a skill”, and the thought of that is pretty scary. 10,000 hours is an awful lot of practice. That’s a full time job for more than 6 years! And that’s just for one thing.  I gave up work so I could spend time on more things, not less.

Getting back to my point, though, is it a problem that I have so many things I want to do? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming, and it’s easier to do none of them than to decide which one to do. Sometimes I think that not spending lots of time on one thing, and flitting between many projects, is a bad thing.


I’ve envied people who have a passion in life. I don’t have one passion. I have many interests! As a result, I won’t ever be able to spend enough time on any of them to be great at them. Instead, I spend as much time on them as makes me happy. I will try not to be too critical of my efforts, though. I will try to remember that I don’t need to be perfect at the skills – good enough will do.

working on another interest - the vegie patch
(yes, it was cold)

In my work life, I did OK by knowing a little about a lot of things. And I enjoyed the kind of work I did because I got to talk to lots of different people, and find out how many different people did their jobs. That was hugely interesting to me. And people kept paying me to do it! So maybe being easily bored, and liking variety, aren’t faults – that’s just the way I am.


So mostly, no, I don’t think having so many things that interest me is a problem. I just can’t do them all now. I will have to live to about 150 to get them all done, though. At least I know now that the answer to the question people asked me when I retired – “Won’t you get bored?” – is No.

another interest - making mosaics

yet another interest - making bags

Actually, thinking about it, that phrase about “10,000 hours” may well be one that, through repetition, has gone from a catchy phrase someone thought up, to something people think is true. Don’t believe everything you hear!



What to Do?

Believe it or not, I actually have a list of things I want to write about on this blog. Yes, that’s right, I’ve planned it. The trouble is I’m not keeping to the list! I find that a bit challenging, as I like being able to tick things off my lists – that way I can see that I’ve actually achieved something. And it makes me feel comfortable that I’m going about things in a structured, orderly way.

my list of things to do - on the craft room wall

The difficulty is that I keep on thinking of more things to write about, and I end up writing about what I want to write about at the time, instead of following my (not very) well thought out list. So when I decide that I’m going to write about something NOT on the list, I put it onto the list just so I can tick it off. That lets me pretend that I am still doing things in a structured, orderly way. Sad, really.

cotton, rolled into balls, as per list

But the same thing is happening with all the things I want to do in my retirement. I have a list (of course), but then I think of things that I want to do that aren’t on the list. And for some reason, I think that I can’t do them unless they are on the list. I don’t pretend to understand the way my brain works!

Where am I going with this train of thought? One of the things people worry about when they are going to retire is “what will I do?”, thinking that they won’t have enough to fill up the time, and that they will be bored. That was certainly one of the most common questions I was asked when I told people about my impending retirement. But what I have found is that instead of worrying because I have nothing to do, I’m worrying because I have SO MANY things to do, and I don’t know which ones I SHOULD do. The question is still “what will I do?”, it just has a different spin on it.

things I have on the go - cross-stitch, knitting, cushion cover
none of these are on the list!

This is impacting on my enjoyment of retirement. Back when I wrote about being too busy to be bored, I didn’t realise how it would affect me, that it would become one of the mental challenges I’m facing. And I’m really struggling with having a less rigid structure about my day. I was a bit premature when I said I’d decided that structure wasn’t important to me anymore.  I’m trying to change the habits of a lifetime, here, and that isn’t easy.

Wish me luck!