THE RETIREMENT CAFÉ
By Ernie J. Zelinski

TOP-TEN ACTIVITIES TO PURSUE

WHEN YOU ARE RETIRED

Top-Ten Retirement Activities

People love chopping wood, In this activity one immediately sees results.
- Albert Einstein

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
- Zen proverb

You can feel whole and alive again at any age provided you have an overriding purpose other than to just exist in comfort.

An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labor, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
- James Thomson

In other words, you want to have an active retirement with many fun things to do.

Here are the top-ten activities for retirees that will help you retire happy.

Have a major life purpose.

Be open to learning new things.

Accept that money will buy style and comfort, but it won't buy you happiness.

Learn how to enjoy solitude.

Find a retirement job that you can work at temporarily as a fun job.

Maintain old friendships and create new friends.

Indulge in regular strenuous exercise so that you will be physically fit and able to enjoy your retirement activities.

Read The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

Travel a lot.

Find many ways to connect with the world.

Top-Ten Retirement Activities That Are Never Too Late to Pursue Unless You Are Dead

Start a Newspaper: Mary Baker Eddy was 87 when she founded the Christian Science Monitor.

Obtain a University Degree. Doris Eaton Travis was 88 when she graduated with a degree in history from the University of Oklahoma.

Learn How to Read Better: Franklin Tennessee resident David Eugene Ray was ninety-nine when he started to learn how to read.

Run a Marathon. Ed Benham was 84 when he ran a marathon in 4 hours, 17 minutes, and 51 seconds.

Go to Jail for a Good Cause: Doctor Benjamin Spock was 83 when he was arrested at Cape Canaveral, Florida for demonstrating for world peace.

Operate a Ski Club: Lloyd Lambert, at 87, was an active skier and operating a seventy-plus Ski Club that had 3,286 members including a ninety-seven-year-old.

Climb the Highest Mountain That You Can Find: Hulda Crooks was 91 when she climbed Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental United States.

Continue Working in Retirement as an Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright, a pioneer in the modern style and considered one of the greatest figures in twentieth-century architecture, was 89 when he designed his last building.

Start a Symphony Orchestra: Leopold Stokowski founded the American Symphony Orchestra at 80 and recorded twenty albums in his nineties. At the age of 96, Stokowski - an eternal optimist no doubt - signed a six-year recording contract.

Write a Book: At the prime age of ninety-eight, Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux sold her first book for a small fortune. The great-great-grandmother, an unschooled and unskilled writer, turned a memoir she wrote in a writing class for senior citizens into a book.

An E-mail from a Reader in Kuwait Who

Is Looking Forward to Early Retirement

Over the years I have received well over 1,000 letters and e-mails from readers of my international best-selling retirement books How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and The Joy of Not Working.

It comes as a surprise to many people, but not to me, that a lot of the readers of my books write a letter of liberation either to announce that they have quit their jobs to pursue a more enjoyable job or take early retirement so that they can experience the joy of being retired instead of the misery of the workplace.

The following e-mail is from a gentleman in Kuwait who is looking forward to early retirement and likely will have no problem finding inspirational activities to make his retirement happy, wild, and free.

----- Original Message -----
From: Nbren510
To: Ernie Zelinski
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 7:29 AM
Subject: Hello

Hi Mr Zelinski

I am from Kuwait.

Your book reflects the real life in Kuwait and I think everywhere.

I have enjoyed reading The Joy of NOT Working.

It's a great book.

I am considering retirement within 3 or 5 years .

By the way, I am 31, married, and have a daughter.

Good Luck

Thanks

Sulaiman Alhasawi