More Work Than Play in Retirement

Continue writing Manpads…. Register for conventions… Find new channels for distributing my books… Schedule speaking engagements… Prepare new material… Give a speech… Write a column…. These are all the tasks I’ve been doing in the past couple of weeks.    And, it looks like a full time job, it is. I thought I could do it a couple hours a day, but au contraire, it is not to be. It really is work and to get it all done, it would take 10 hours a day… That sounds like a full time job to me.

For example, last week, I gave speech to a local Rotary Club and then on Wednesday, I flew to Ontario, CA. That and the hour long drive in light traffic to the hotel took most of the day. I got there a few hours before a scheduled dinner with the sponsor who invited me to speak. Then, the next day, I spent an hour and a half in front of a group followed by a dash, again in light traffic – thankfully – to Los Angeles International Airport.

It was just like a business trip – out, sleep in a hotel, go to a meeting, fly home. The trip took the better part of two days and 18months ago, I’d have considered it routine. Now it’s a chore. I got some writing time on the airplane and did some work in the hotel in the afternoon and in the a.m. before my speech.

Admittedly, I’d decided to spend more time working on the promotional side of writing than creating, so all this work is the by-product. I think why I am mentally pushing back is that it is feels like a full time job.

Since I didn’t want to work full time anymore, so I retired. Now I’m back working at something I really want to do – not for a company, not for the government, but for me… So, I am rationalizing it as my third career!

Marc Liebman

January 2017