About These Posts

Each day I add a new journal entry to my social media feeds. Here, I take that day’s entry and expand it through the lens of my Good Life Creed, which you can read about in my book Going Alone (available for free on this website). These dissections aim to connect ordinary reflections with the enduring objectives and principles of the Creed.

Journal Entry (10/24/25)

I sat for a real job interview yesterday. Not even a year into retirement, and I’m already looking for work again. My reasons are both practical and personal. The extra income will certainly help until U.S. Social Security begins next summer—but more than that, I miss having something that gives shape to my weekdays. After a rocky start, I’ve mostly grown used to not working, yet I still miss the challenge, stimulation, and quiet satisfaction that come from a job well done—especially one done in service to others. If I were still in America, I’d probably be applying for part-time work at Home Depot, Starbucks, or Trader Joe’s—becoming that older guy in an apron eager to take your order or help you find the right nails.

The interview went well, I think. I should know today if I’ve been accepted. It’s an online English-teaching job, something I hadn’t seriously considered before, but now it feels right. My students would be retired Japanese seniors looking for conversation practice during the day. The idea came from my neighbor, a seventy-something woman I see every morning at radio exercise. She told me I’d be good at it, and during the interview I learned that many of the school’s students are older Japanese seeking companionship and language learning in one.

I hope I get the job. The thought of a few hours of steady, purposeful work each weekday feels like a welcome return to rhythm and routine.

Dissection

This reflection captures the evolving relationship between work, time, and meaning after retirement. What once was necessity now becomes choice—a reintroduction of structure not out of obligation, but as an act of care for one’s own balance and well-being.

#Maturity (Principle of Maturity)

This is the acceptance of shifting seasons. The youthful pursuit of ambition gives way to the elder’s search for purpose. To work again, even modestly, is not regression but evolution—a recognition that meaning can still be found in effort and service.

#Time (Objective: Make Good and Effective Use of Time and Resources)

Here, time becomes a vessel for peace. Purposeful activity fills the day not with busyness, but with gentle order. The desire to use one’s hours wisely reflects an ongoing commitment to stewardship over life’s most precious resource.

#Limits (Objective: Recognize True Limits and True Opportunity)

Retirement is not freedom from limits, but a clearer view of them. The decision to seek part-time work acknowledges both practical boundaries and the opportunity within them—to contribute, to connect, and to live rhythmically within one’s means.

Takeaway

Work, at this stage, is less about career and more about continuity—a way to keep the mind alert, the days shaped, and the heart connected to others. Sometimes maturity means not abandoning what once served us, but returning to it on gentler terms.

#RetiringInJapan 🇯🇵 #GoingAlone 🌵 #Maturity #Time #Limits