Some blog posts I write are for my family, so they know where we are and don’t need to worry about us.
Some blog posts I write are for sharing cool places around the world to hopefully inspire people to travel to new places.
Some blog posts are for my retired nomad friends where I share travel victories and failures in hopes of creating a discussion that will help us all be better travelers.
This post is just for me and my wife. Sometimes I need to write things down just so it can manifest itself in my head.
In the corporate world, every year I had to create some goals in the spring that would hopefully guide my work for the next year. Theoretically, my compensation would be tied to how I did that year working towards those goals. I always hated the process and I’m not sure if it ever really helped improve productivity for anyone. But maybe it did help people understand a bit what their priorities are. When we retired, I stopped thinking about goals. My goal was really to quit working and travel. I can count that as a success as we are still semi-nomadic! But I have been recently thinking about defining our retired life a little more. I actually have a lot of goals so it might be good to write them down just like I did for so many years while working. This will be for my 2025 PM (Performance Management). :>)
- Become a better husband and travel partner. We make a lot of decisions together whether it be, travel planning or just where to have dinner and it takes work to make those decisions jointly. I also need to continuously strive to be a more loving emotional partner to enjoy life together.
- Support our parents as they age. Right now our parents are doing just fine and are healthy enough to continue living in their homes. Our support today consists of communication and visits, but in the future, they may need more support than that and we have committed to be there for them.
- Support our kids. We are incredibly proud of both our boys for the adults they have grown into. They are fully independent working adults that are enjoying their lives. But, I don’t believe parenting ever ends so I want to continue to be connected with them to provide any requested advice or guidance.
- Take care of our health as we age ourselves. We are paying for ACA health insurance even though we are only in America for a couple of months. Our goal is to stay on schedule with dental cleanings, vaccinations and regular checkups when we are back in Seattle.
- Exercise. I planned to bike a lot more when I retired but I have since realized that most places in the world don’t have safe bike routes. So I only bike in the summer back in Seattle so I rely on lots of walking and hiking while I am traveling. This year I hope to find a way to bike a bit more.
- Stretch. I need to get more limber. I do a lot of stretching in the pool but we don’t always stay in places with pools. I need to get into a daily routine that doesn’t require a swimming pool.
- Contact with old friends. Trips back to Seattle are filled with visits to family and friends but we don’t always make the time to see everyone. We need to make it a priority to visit as many old friends every summer.
- Make new friends. We meet up with other retired nomads often when we are traveling the world. We connect with social media groups and it gives us the community that we are missing while traveling. The big plus is that we really enjoy hanging out with these like-minded people.
- Know the moon phase. I bike commuted while working during the summers and always knew the phase of the moon. I hoped that when I retired, I would know the moon the entire year. This would mean that I am an outdoor person and not become a homebody that would watch their retirement slide by from the couch. I haven’t really kept up with this as much as I would like, because we go to bed too early and sleep in. But I have seen the moon every day this week.
- Learn new cultures. Yes, we continue to travel to foreign countries but sometimes we don’t make enough effort to learn the language and understand customs. I want to get better at this.
- Learn new food. I like to order food that I like and I tend to stick to my favorites. I’m good about not ordering American food much, but I often find some dishes that I really like in a country and keep ordering them. I will strive to try more new things.
- Eat and drink less. Maybe I am trying new food too much. I seem to be gaining a bit of weight and it could be from all that eating and drinking.
- See more birds. My life list is at 644 birds right now and I should be in some places to add to that list this year.
- Learn local history. Some countries have great museums to help me understand their history. I need to go to those museums. Some countries I need to watch youtube or research the internet to understand their history.
- Be creative. I haven’t painted much in a while. I might try again but it is tough while traveling. I guess my creative outlet is this blog. I will continue to try and use writing to fill that creative desire.
- Get enough sleep but not too much. I got up crazy early while working so I never got enough sleep. I want to get enough sleep to be healthy but not waste away my retirement by sleeping in.
- Regularly get out at night and see nightlife. We have been terrible at this while traveling. We sometimes go to see live music after dinner but most of the time we just have a late dinner and then go back to our Airbnb and read/watch TV. More going out needs to happen.
- See Live Sports Events We see the Sounders and Mariners in the summers but I really like seeing soccer in other countries. We never seem to be in the right place at the right time. I need to work harder to align our schedule with the games I want to see.
- See new places. This last year we visited a few new countries but we also spent a lot of time in our old favorites like Mexico, Spain, Italy and France. Our country count didn’t go up much but our Mexican and France state counts really went up. That is just as good.
- Enjoy being where we are. I spend a lot of time planning where we are going to go 6 to 12 months from now. Sometimes I forget I am in a really cool place and just need to put away the computer and go enjoy it.
- Make transportation easier. Long bus rides suck. Bouncy speedboats and ferries suck. Economy seating on budget airlines suck. Sometimes we need to shorten our travel distances or pay a bit more to make life a bit easier.
- Stay longer in places that are comfortable. We have been saying we are going to slow down our travel for a long time. Maybe this is the year that we will actually start doing it.
- Go to places that aren’t so comfortable. We just left Cambodia and are currently in Laos and both of those places aren’t so bad. Sometimes places seem that they would be difficult but we always find a way to make it work. We have avoided Egypt, Morocco, China and India so far. Maybe this is the year we start booking some of those more challenging places.
- Don’t focus on travel lists and instead travel for experiences. We don’t want to travel to increase our country count, our UNESCO world heritage site count or finish the 7 wonders of the world. I am OK missing out on the best cathedrals and art museums of the world if something else comes up that we would like better.
- Continue writing the blog. The blog is a lot of work and not that many people read it. But I really want to keep doing it as a document of what I did in my retired life. I also need it to keep my brain active. And a few of my family friends actually read it and like it (or so they say :-))
- Volunteer and be a good citizen of the USA and world. This a hard one when we are traveling so fast. Right now, I only volunteer at a school in Bucerias, Mexico for a month a year. Slower travel should enable some more opportunities while abroad. Also being outside of America, it is difficult to watch our democracy fight the current challenges. I will continue to vote online no matter where in the world we are.
- Be a good environmental citizen of the world. I take a lot of flights and have a bit of guilt for that. I try to stitch them together with trains and buses to hopefully reduce the amount of air travel carbon. We are tempted to join our nomads on repositioning cruises across the oceans. They are 3 times as bad as flights and we haven’t succumbed yet. We do spend a lot of time on public transportation and walk a lot. We need to keep focused on not driving in Seattle. Our house is within walking distance of everything we need and only a couple of blocks from light rail.
Looking back at this list I think my boss would say it is way too long. Good thing I don’t have a boss anymore…. Also, I have not created goals that are measurable. I didn’t say how many new countries I would visit, how many new birds I would see, or how much weight I would lose. Again, I don’t have a boss so I can make the assessment at the end of the year myself. I will know if I have done well or not. And I won’t get a raise anyway…. I’m retired.
That’s an ambitious list.