Seven things retirees can learn from artists

Retirees sometimes feel that their new lives are much less stimulating and a lot more isolated than their hectic, pre-retirement years. And when they are faced with the added burden of physical or mental challenges, they either go into denial and try to manage as they did in the past, or they give up.

Dealing with challenges and change is part of life at any stage and no one knows that better than artists. Their finances and living arrangements are often unstable so they develop skills and strategies to help them thrive over time. Those same strategies can help retirees adapt and enjoy life too.

Here’s what retirees can learn from artists:

1. Develop a sense of community: Discovering and nurturing a sense of community comes more easily to artists because they are always in touch with other artists and often collaborate on projects. They don’t tend to feel isolated or alone because they are always in communication with their peers.


2. Be true to yourself and get out of yourself: Artists express their deepest natures and the ideas that are important to them, in their art. That experience enriches their lives, makes them more likely to do authentic work, and gives them a strong sense of self. Working in the realm of ideas and then communicating those ideas to the world gets artists ‘out of themselves’ so they don’t become self-obsessed or dwell on the negative.


3. Use age, time and experience to develop your accomplishments: Everything artists experience throughout their lives – the good and the bad – plus the wisdom they’ve developed, finds a way into their work. And that work only gets better with time.


4. Don’t let illness or frailty stand in your way:  Claude Monet created his famous water lily paintings when he was going blind. Instead of giving up, he continued on and painted some of the most vibrant and beloved works of his career.


5. Welcome change and adapt: If artists cannot afford expensive materials they’ll use something cheaper. If a physical impairment makes it difficult to use a certain medium or style they may change it but they won’t quit. The focus is always on the art and on how to continue creating.


6. Have confidence in your abilities and talents: Artists develop a sense of mastery as they continue to create and this gives them confidence. The more you do something the more your confidence will grow.


7. Find meaning and make sense of the world and your place in it: Artists find meaning in the act of creating and in the final product. They make sense of the world by communicating with it through their art. That interaction isn’t lost as they age because they never stop.