Retirement Travel And Continuous Education, Part I Bucket List
Travelling the world…
For many of us, travelling the world is amongst the top of our bucket list. There is a certain magic in travelling to see new places, to experience new cultures and perhaps to explore history as well as nature's gifts. In a broader sense, travel is continuous education, especially so when we can see the world with an open mind. It is also to create a great memory, be it travelling with your family or amongst friends.
Retirement…
Ideally, travelling the world is best not to be left after retirement! Ironically, retirement is what we’re all working towards. For some of us, retirement is just a few years away and for others, it’s some decades away. Either way, making sure you have the resources to be happy and healthy during your retirement phase is important. Never mind the possibilities of working more years and hence postponing your own retirement in this increasingly unpredictable economic world. Let's leave that for another story.
Globe-trotting with friends…
My recent travel to China in early March with four friends started with a common objective. Alan, Tony, Wilson, Yik and I wanted simply to sample the new Beijing to Guangzhou high-speed railway. We had travelled together before, but in larger groups some years ago. Those were official travels involving tourism missions since each of us had been executives in the aviation or travel industry. For me, this is my very first trip with this smaller and select group of friends who had made many happy and memorable trips together before. Internally, I can't help but feel somewhat like an outsider, a stranger who needs to get fully accepted. It reminded me of those strange feelings when attending class reunions during anniversaries and getting re-acquainted with classmates whom you have not seen for some 10, 20 or even 30 years!
Lessons for retirement life…
And so I was mindful of retired group dynamics when finalising our itinerary and things to do. During retirement life, I am conscious of the need to overcome my behaviour and the conditioning from my years of corporate life! I recalled and applied the useful lessons for personal change from Stephen Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". These lessons are just as relevant in retirement. We only had a group of five travelling together. Imagine if we had to contend with a group of twenty. Staying and travelling together as a team required a fair amount of influencing, persuasion and selling. Lots of give-and-take too. This is the joy of travelling with a group of friends.
Related Links: 1. China opens world's longest high-speed rail route ~ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20842836 Related articles:
