So we start thinking… what have I done with my life? What have I achieved, and what do those achievements really mean? Will finishing that report on the weekend, filing the taxes a day early or checking e-mails at 6AM be something my children, or my community will remember me for? The retirement age in Canada averages 65 and rising.
Due to financial and economic circumstances most people find themselves in these days. Are you really willing to wait until you hit your 67th birthday to finally do something meaningful?
Second Act: Are You Making a Living Or Making a Difference?
Steve Jobs is often credited with the biggest second act in business history, with his triumphant return to Apple after being ousted from the company. You are probably not either. So what about normal, everyday people like us? In late , I started recording interviews with regular people I found inspiring.
From authors and entrepreneurs to artists and monks. One of the patterns that quickly emerged, even after recording the first 10 interviews, is the power of the second act. Let me tell you just one of the stories. Stella Sehn was backed into a corner. One day, while driving to the city to escape their reality of life in a small town an idea was born. They would take a leap of faith on a honey farming opportunity that came up. They had to do something. Sheldon still went up north to bring in the funds they desperately needed, while Stella rolled up her sleeves and started building a brand.
Even that early on, she had a hunch there was more to this honey business than just selling it to wholesalers, at wholesale prices.
- The Second Act Fallacy?
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- Second Acts: How to Get Started on a New Career | AARP - NR.
- Azerbaijan: Picture Book (Educational Childrens Books Collection) - Level 2 (Planet Collection 183).
- The Singing Gardener.
- The Second Act Fallacy – theranchhands.com!
- Somnambulism: The Poetry of James Ferace.
And so Sweet Pure Honey was born. That was the beginning of their second act.
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At the time of this writing, Stella negotiated a deal with a brewery in Washington to supply honey for their Vulcan Honey Ale Star Trek Fans — rejoice! Her business and brand are gaining fans internationally. People from as far as Japan order honey jars from Sweet Pure Honey. This is just one story, from a regular person like you and me. I think most people still have a scarcity mindset, so the primary objectives are wealth accumulation and consumption while trying to increase status among peers and even strangers.
In countries with a more generous social system, people become more more environmentally and socially conscious. In more extreme countries like the US, there are real fears of poverty, lack of adequate health care and access to education. Those fears make it difficult to have a meaningful second act. Hi John — thanks so much for the note: For most of the people I interviewed, something came online at some point — usually due to an external trigger, and they decide to indulge their passions and follow what feels right. Often, they end up doing amazing things and get noticed by the rest of us.
It reminds me of The Matrix quote: After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill — the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.
What triggers a second act?
You take the red pill — you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Many were working in actualizing careers, until the Great Recession cleared out very many middle-agers, who, facing discrimination when hiring came back, choose work-for-me pursuits, just like the hedge funders who crashed the whole thing without consequence. As tantalizing as the dream existence might be, for many of us these goals remain in the realm of make-believe.
In the experience of life coach Stephen Pollan, coauthor of Second Acts: Creating the Life You Really Want, Building the Career You Truly Desire , the reason people are most likely to shy away from embarking on a dream project is that they feel they are too old. Yet midlife and beyond can be an ideal moment to make a transformation. You have experience working with people. Pollan speaks from experience: At the age of 48, he was misdiagnosed with cancer, then correctly diagnosed with tuberculosis, and was forced to give up his job as a corporate attorney.
He launched a career as a life coach after his convalescence, eager to share with other people the sense of gratitude and proactive mindset his brush with mortality had brought out in him.
Your Second Act Maine
To be sure, change rarely comes without effort: It takes introspection to identify what path we could pursue that would make us more fulfilled, and often we encounter some barriers to achieving goals. Some obstacles are self-created; we may be so paralyzed by the possibility of public failure, or nervous that our spouse or colleagues will lift a skeptical eyebrow at our secret aspiration, that we never attempt to make it a reality.
Other times we may lack academic credentials or expertise to effect a career change. But hurdles both external and internal can be overcome. Just look at some of the more famous second acts in American life: Ways to Discover a New Calling.
The first step to constructing a more meaningful life is to identify a career or vocation you could feel passionate about. Others may feel a vague discontent, but are unsure which new endeavor might be more fulfilling. In those instances, Pollan recommends spending a few hours at the biggest bookstore or library near your home, freely browsing the stacks and jotting down titles and topics that look appealing.
- Every Color on the Face of the Sun?
- Expressions in Poetry!
- Episodes – Second Act Stories;
- L’ATLANTE DELLE MERAVIGLIE - luoghi che forse non avete mai visto (Italian Edition).
- Eight Steps To Guide Your Second Half of Life – Barbara Babkirk « Your Second Act Maine;
- Die Orthographie in den Wörterbüchern des 17. Jahrhunderts (German Edition).
- Your job vs your work?
- Me and My Bipolar Disorder.
- Reaching Beyond the Veil: Unlocking the Mystery of Modern Spirit Communication;
- On Freuds On Beginning the Treatment (The International Psychoanalytical Association Contemporary Freud: Turning Points and Critical Issues Series).
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By letting yourself roam, your natural curiosity may uncover possibilities and give you clues to how you might enjoy filling the next years of your life. She asks readers to write three press releases about themselves. The first one can be utterly fanciful. A corporate accountant, for example, might dash off a paragraph about how his latest rock song has climbed to the top of iTunes charts. The idea is to start limbering our sense of possibility for the next two dispatches, one of which is to be dated two months from now, the other two years hence. In those exercises, Sher asks you to be a little more realistic.
Perhaps a high school teacher, a mother of three, writes about how she has embarked on painting wildlife scenes, and several of her pieces were just exhibited in a local gallery. It is a lofty goal, for sure, but by giving herself a timeline, and stating her aspiration in a couple of paragraphs, the educator has given herself a steeple to chase. While it can be exhilarating to contemplate ambitious goals, it can trigger fears as well. The Six Styles of Procrastination and How to Overcome Them , describes how many clients over the years have spoken about potential career changes, only to immediately follow with protestations that their goal is unattainable.
One of the formulations she hears most often: So we might say: Of course, reaching out to just one person may provide a toehold on a new path, but what to do when our potential contacts in a new field or endeavor are scarce?