“We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the programme of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” ~  C.G. Jung

Today I am beginning a series of posts about living in the third act of life. For those of us in our sixth or seventh or eighth decade of life, we have the opportunity to create the Third Act of our lives. We are in a period of life in which we are free from social expectations and reduced family obligations, with the freedom and the need to find new meaning and purpose. We are living longer than ever before in better health and our choices are expansive as we shift our view from building a career in our Second Act to creating the Third Act of our life story. 

The goal of all life, the end point, death is what lies in front of us all. And in this act, it looms larger than it has before and is much more a part of consciousness. To be fully alive is to know that death lies ahead.

Between here and death, there is a lot of territory. Work to be done to deal with things left undone, to reconcile ourselves to our past, to seriously consider the story we have been living with an eye especially toward any changes we want to make in the remaining years.

‘The first half of life is but preparation for the second …’ (Jung)

1. Are you who you expected to be at this point in your life?

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