Dear LPG,

I retired about ten years ago and I suppose I have managed to rearrange my lifestyle and expectations accordingly.  I would say that apart from one aspect of my life I am still a fairly happy and confident person but there is always one aspect isn’t there?

I don’t think that I am the only pensioner who has found that, as I get older, I seem to get less done each day and everything seems to take me longer.  I know that I spend more time letting things distract my attention and getting ready to go out and preparing to do things is a perfect example, but I think that I have earned the right to be a little more relaxed as I travel through each day.  The real problem is that at the end of each day I am disappointed in my achievement levels.  I know that I can’t have it both ways and here lies my problem.

I have asked myself questions like ‘…do I think that what I achieve matters less now that I am older?’ or ‘…is it because there is no longer a deadline in sight that will affect anyone else?’ but, whatever the answers to such questions, I feel that retirement has made me into an underachiever.

They say that you slow up as you get older, but when I was looking forward to not having to work all day I had so many projects and tasks on my post-retirement to do list and, looking back over the past few years has made me realise that I am not getting very far.

I have to admit to spending far too much time browsing the internet, now that I have mastered that pursuit with the aid of a tablet I bought recently, and when I pointed out my dissatisfaction with myself to a friend he reminded me that I had done well to master the tablet and that many people who are new to them have given up.  He told me that perhaps I was not really giving myself credit for the things that were not on my list but which I had achieved anyway. 

That made me feel a bit better, as did a video that I found.  I don’t think I am the only retired person who does not give themselves credit for the things that they have actually achieved, but after you have stopped to do this you might find the video I found a little helpful even though it appears to focus on younger people with the same problems.

AF, Crofton Park

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