Finding the Life Purpose after Retiring in Malaysia

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How many of you struggle to find your life purpose after retiring in Malaysia? Many Malaysians felt loss after their retirement. They felt useless. They felt like dead wood ready to be thrown into the fire. Life has different goals and milestones, and every milestone requires various activities and priorities. It is hard for a person to stay at home and do nothing after working for a more extended period of life. But if you have a life purpose after retirement, you will remain physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy.

Seven stages of retirement

According to The Star, there are seven stages of retirement. Stage one is pre-retirement, where the retirees-to-be do financial planning and skills development. Stages two and three are retirement and honeymoon stages, respectively. They can last from a few months to a few years. Older adults get the freedom to do what they never do before retirement. The problem is you might feel bored after doing these activities. For example, many older adults found that the life of travel and leisure they wanted wasn’t for them after a few years. 

Hence, you might want to find a life purpose. Many retirees will face disenchantment (stage four), a let-down period. One reason is that when you retire, and your kids are grown, you don’t have any job or work to report. You might want to change, but you don’t want to return to the rat race. The bad news is no course teaches us to plan for our retirement or what to expect after retirement. That is why I established this website, to help older adults to find their life purpose. 
 
Some managed to walk out of stage four, but many didn’t. For those who did, congratulations! They will start the journey of discovery during their third age. They want to ensure that they are living their best life. They begin to explore new activities and develop more realistic life expectations, and this is stage five – reorientation. 
 
After the seniors master the activities they like, they form a retirement routine (stage six) around their daily lives. Hate to say that there is stage seven, which is the termination of retirement. This stage is where illness, disability and death occur and is the last stage of retirement. 

Life purpose ideas for retired personals

Older adults usually feel the urgency to find their life purpose during stage four or stage five of their retirement. Retirement life must have a mix of activities that help you to stay active and engage with society. When you are involved with life activities and your community, you can spend the optimal time of your life. 
 
Here we will share five life purpose ideas you can adopt to live the best time in your older age. So let’s dive into it.

 

1. Join senior clubs or a retirement community

Malaysia has some of the best local clubs for seniors like U3A, YMCA and SeniorsAloud. When you visit the club, you will find other retirees with similar interests. There are plenty of people in the retirement community who may initially face mental or physical health issues. But, they slowly recovered after joining the community through different activities and mental counselling. So, you can live a purposeful life with excellent health.

2. Incorporate social activities in your life by joining non-profit organisations

Make plans with other retirees about some social work or activities. It will help you to find the purpose of your life, and you can also support others. There are different kinds of social movements that you can do to help others. You can be a volunteer at mosques, churches or temples. There are also many charitable organisations which are non-religious and accept books, clothes etc. You can help to sort and sell these items, and the funds go to various orphanages or wildlife conservation. Besides, volunteers can help to pack and cook food. The retired personnel will enjoy the best experience in supporting the organisations. So, try finding non-profitable organisations and give them your services. You can find your life purpose through many meaningful activities with non-profitable organisations. Moreover, you will feel a sense of belonging by staying connected with your community and supporting them.

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3. Attend some local events

Due to cultural diversity, Malaysians never run out of choices regarding different events for different festivals. Check out some of the events here, https://www.exoticca.com/us/asia/southeast-asia/malaysia/events. The local events in Malaysia are always entertaining and engaging for every age group. You may miss attending the local events during your job life. So after retirement, you have the best time to attend the local events according to your interest and enjoy the perks. Moreover, it is a great way to stay connected with other retirees and share life goals.

4. Focus more on your health

When you enter retirement life, you suddenly become physically and mentally inactive. So it is the essential phase when you need to adopt healthy diets and exercise that keep you fit. You can try new sports like golfing and many more. Joining a walking club is also a good choice for retirees. The gyms also offer you some programs to keep you active as a senior citizen.

5. Host or Join some activities

Research shows that joining a choir may positively impact older adults through healing, relaxation and vocal maintenance. BAVE Concert Choir is one of the choirs in PJ by Broadway Theater Society Malaysia. Besides that, try organising your activities such as photography, cycling, hiking, reading, drawing, writing and mahjong. The possibilities are endless. You can post your activity in Meetup or create your own Facebook, Telegram or Discord group and watch them grow. You will be shocked that organising activities for a large group of people give you more satisfaction and you have finally found
your life purpose!

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