We had a newly retired friend drop by recently, and as we were out back visiting together, I slowly realized that he seemed very content to just sit and chat, giving off no signals whatsoever of being in any sort of hurry to leave. Which was totally fine, but which felt very odd to me. As I later pondered why it seemed so odd to sit with someone appearing to have all the time in the world, it dawned on me that once upon a time I had been like that in my retirement, way back in the beginning. Over time however, little by little, my time began to be taken up with a multitude of hobbies and activities that had slowly each taken on a life of their own.
For the most part I like it that way in that I'm a total extrovert, meaning that my energy goes up, up, up when I'm around other people, and down, down, down when I'm off by myself. So on a very practical level, my commitments keep me motivated and moving forward on a day-to-day basis. However, too many commitments can also res…
