What Writing Children’s Books Has Taught Me About Retirement

I have learned something about retirement: you always need a project.

A project doesn’t have to be something grand. Sometimes it is repairing the garbage disposal or fixing a rocking chair. Other times it becomes something much bigger than you expected.

Throughout my life, I have always enjoyed building things. I’ve been a woodworker for years, making tables, cornhole games, rocking chairs and whatever else seemed interesting at the time. There is something satisfying about starting with an idea, figuring out how to make it work and eventually being able to stand back and say, “I made that.”

For most of my career, my projects were quite different. I spent years in business leading teams of very smart people who designed and built instruments for satellites. Those projects had schedules, requirements, budgets, problems to solve and deadlines to meet.

Then I retired.

Suddenly, nobody was handing me the next project.

So I found my own.

I did more woodworking. I spent more time riding my bike. I also became deeply involved in genealogy and the search for my birth parents. That led me to research my family history and begin writing about my relatives and ancestors.

Writing became another project.

Then I discovered that I could take something I had written and turn it into a children’s book. Of course, that meant I had to learn about illustrating, page layouts, printing specifications, publishing and Amazon KDP.

One project had suddenly become about ten projects.

And I loved it.

At this point, I have written, illustrated and published eight books. Along the way, I have learned new technology, made plenty of mistakes and discovered things I had absolutely no idea how to do when I started.

Now I am discovering that writing and publishing the books may have been the easy part.

The hard part is getting people to know the books exist.

So now I am learning marketing, websites, social media, advertising and how to reach readers. There is a lot I still don’t know.

Which apparently means I have another project.

In fact, my retirement calendar can look surprisingly similar to the calendars I kept when I was working. It is filled with projects, tasks, milestones and things I want to accomplish.

The difference is that none of this feels like a drudge. I am doing these things because I want to do them. I can follow an idea simply because it interests me and see where it goes.

Maybe that is one of the best things about retirement.

Retirement doesn’t have to mean that you stop working, learning or building things. It can mean that, for the first time, you have the freedom to choose the projects.

And when you finish one?

Find another.

As for me, I decided to start writing a blog.

Maybe that will help me sell some books.

Big smile.

You always need a project

This post reflects on the pleasure of learning something new, making mistakes, and building something simply because you want to see whether you can.