Do I get bored when I’m RVing? That was the question someone asked me the other day. My reply, “Of course, I get bored.” Everyone gets bored at different times in their life and full-time RVing is just living your life, but more mobile. It has all the ups and downs of life in general. A better question to ask might be: Do you ever get bored with retirement? That’s something that can happen to anyone, whether you’re RVing or not. Being bored is just your brain’s way of telling you to get more creative. Being bored all the time is depression.
Do You Ever Get Bored with Retirement?
We work full-time jobs most of our lives and we tend to identify with our jobs. “What do you do?” is often the first question someone asks. When we retire, we often lose the ability to identify with something, like a job. “I’m retired,” doesn’t really answer the question, “What do you do?”
Let’s explore the different stages of retirement and how they affect us.
Boy, Am I Excited About Retirement!
We have so many plans when we first retire. We want to play golf, have lunch with the girls, work in our wood shop, garden, play more golf. There are so many hobbies we want to enjoy in retirement. The first year or two of retirement is wonderful and then we often start getting bored. Playing golf six days a week sounds wonderful when you’re working full-time, but, believe me, you will get bored with it. That means moving on to the next stage of retirement.
I’m Bored! What Do I Do Now?
This is the stage when too many people just give up and face their mortality. That’s not the right path. This is the time to think about other things that you enjoy about your life. Maybe you’re not ready to retire completely. You could consider doing some consulting in your field of expertise or, maybe, you want to start your dream business. Maybe you have a church or other charity that is dear to your heart. Volunteers are always needed. The list is endless. Now is the time to make some changes to your retirement. What is your next step going to be? RVing full-time, maybe?
No, We’re NOT Bored WITH RVing.
The change Jim and I made to our retirement was RVing full-time. I’ve always loved to garden but my knees weren’t cooperating any more. Jim spent the first two years of his retirement working on projects around our 100-year-old house. He’d had enough of projects. We both loved those things, but eventually they became too hard to do because of physical limitations. That’s when we decided to sell it all and travel the country. We don’t regret our decision.
But Do We Ever Get Bored WHILE RVing?
As I said earlier, of course we get bored when you RV full-time. When it rains for a week straight and we’re sharing less than 200 square feet of space, life gets boring. When we’re camping in a place with no TV or internet, life gets boring. When you can’t even download a book, life gets boring. It happens to all of us and anyone who tells you differently is lying.
RVing full-time means doing the everyday chores you might do if you had a sticks-and-bricks house, minus the yard mowing. We have to buy groceries, cook meals, clean house (although a much smaller “house”), do laundry, fix things that break, etc. For me, all of these things are boring. That, however, doesn’t mean that my life is always boring.
Consider this: Every couple of weeks we wake up to a new experience. The scenery is completely different. The weather varies. The hikes are in new, undiscovered (for us) country. There are new parks and cities to learn about. There’s a new history lesson to learn. There are new restaurants to try. RV life changes constantly. It’s really hard to get bored.
Bored with Life, Sometimes, But Not with RVing Full-time!
We all go through stages of our lives when we’re bored. That’s when we need to pick ourselves up and find something to do that we don’t find boring. Don’t get stuck in a rut. Try something new. Our personalities, our problems, all ride along with us when we RV full-time. Life is ever-changing and it’s our job to make the most of those changes. Listen to your “brain”. When it says it’s bored and be more creative!
