How to find joy in the journey: a ‘retirement mentality’

Finding joy in the journey. It’s a cliché, right? Because how can you find joy when you’re digging in the trenches, managing a household, caring for an aging parent, grieving a loss — not to mention coping with global, and even local, unrest? Self-help books and speakers tout the need to detach our focus from the destination, because the “promised land” resides only in our imaginations. No guarantees. Although the here and now might not resemble any dream we conjured when asked to predict our lives 10, 20, 30+ years post-graduation: here we are. Personally, I hope to retire from my full-time job in four years. But the caveat? I determined I must live with a “retirement mentality” today. That means I wake up each morning and choose how I plan to spend the allotted hours, including practicing gratitude, discovering ways to show kindness to others and infusing playfulness into each day. Oh, and trying not to sweat the small stuff.

How do you find joy in the journey?

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash.