Planning Your Time in Retirement : How to Cultivate a Leisure Lifestyle to Suit Your Needs and Interests

Much of what is written about getting old has a negative feel to it, which is certainly not entirely unjustified. Health may begin to fail. Finances may become tighter as income dwindles or stops altogether. Family and friends may move away or move on. But the retirement years do not have to be negative or bleak. Within this “dark scenario,” a positive existence is possible. Planning Your Time in Retirement focuses on the variety of free-time activities available to retirees as related to their physical, social, and economic situation in old age, helping readers find out what their passions are, what the possibilities might be, and how to cultivate their own leisure lifestyle.For some retirees, a post-work existence consisting of fun works well, for they have managed to shape an interesting casual leisure lifestyle based on easygoing activities that make them happy. Seldom included in the popular image of leisure, however, are other types of leisure that are also widely available to retirees. Regardless of means, the retirement years can consist of activities and pastimes that fulfill the interests and pursuits of any retiree. A variety of exciting leisure activities exists, which retirees may pursue within their financial, physical, mental, and geographic limits. This book provides a guide—the serious leisure perspective—for exploring these activities and choosing those that fit one's tastes, aptitudes, and abilities. At its most appealing, a leisure lifestyle includes a balance of easy-to-do casual interests as well as serious ones that require knowledge, effort, and perseverance. For some, enjoyment and fulfillment may come from engaging in volunteer work, while for others it may involve leisure activities from which they gain some form of payment. By employing the notion of positive simplicity—simple living in the domain of leisure—many people at this stage of life can delight in these final years. While time and money cannot be ignored, finding those activities that allow for engagement, reward, and simplicity can result in days, even years, of leisure that is meaningful, enjoyable, healthy, and empowering. Much of what is written about getting old has a negative feel to it, which is certainly not entirely unjustified. Health may begin to fail. Finances may become tighter as income dwindles or stops altogether. Family and friends may move away or move on. But the retirement years do not have to be negative or bleak. Within this "dark scenario," a positive existence is possible. Planning Your Time in Retirement focuses on the variety of free-time activities available to retirees as related to their physical, social, and economic situation in old age, helping readers find out what their passions are, what the possibilities might be, and how to cultivate their own leisure lifestyle. For some retirees, a post-work existence consisting of fun works well, for they have managed to shape an interesting casual leisure lifestyle based on easygoing activities that make them happy. Seldom included in the popular image of leisure, however, are other types of leisure that are also widely available to retirees. Regardless of means, the retirement years can consist of activities and pastimes that fulfill the interests and pursuits of any retiree. A variety of exciting leisure activities exists, which retirees may pursue within their financial, physical, mental, and geographic limits. This book provides a guide-the serious leisure perspective-for exploring these activities and choosing those that fit one's tastes, aptitudes, and abilities. At its most appealing, a leisure lifestyle includes a balance of easy-to-do casual interests as well as serious ones that require knowledge, effort, and perseverance. For some, enjoyment and fulfillment may come from engaging in volunteer work, while for others it may involve leisure activities from which they gain some form of payment. By employing the notion of positive simplicity-simple living in the domain of leisure-many people at this stage of life can delight in these final years. While time and money cannot be ignored, finding those activities that allow for engagement, reward, and simplicity can result in days, even years, of leisure that is meaningful, enjoyable, healthy, and empowering Acknowledging that the challenge facing social science is how to inject some order into the common-sense notion of leisure lifestyles, this book, written by a major player in the field of leisure, considers how to turn the study of both serious and casual leisure into a useful concept for guiding research. Developing the common-sense notion that leisure lifestyles have time and space dimensions, Stebbins delves into distinctive leisure lifestyles which occur around particular free-time activities such as the serious ones where participants must routinely train, practice, rehearse, gather information, and those that are casual such as bingo, lunches with colleagues, and outings of small walking groups. Demonstrating the nuances of each, and analysing how serious activities are structured along the lines of the social world in which every lifestyle is embedded, this book revolutionises the idea of leisure lifestyle, turning it into a workable concept for guiding research, while also enriching our understanding of what it means. Striving to meet the test of a critical challenge in the field, this book is a refreshing new addition to the work on leisure, from a highly-respected and established scholar. As the greying of our population continues, retirees are enjoying more and more healthy years of retirement, and those years can be productive, enjoyable, and rewarding. This work speaks to those retirees who wish to enjoy their golden years doing things they enjoy.