Image by Aditya Saxena on Unsplash
It’s been my experience and observation that we spend early to mid-adulthood, our Second Age, on auto-pilot. We charge through our days getting lots of “stuff” done. We compartmentalize life, schedule our pleasures and squeeze in downtime. It’s a race to the end of each day. But once you arrive at midlife? Ah, now it’s your time, a for awakening.
I’ve written about the Third Age, a theory Peter Laslett offered in his book, A Fresh Map of Life: The emergence of the Third Age. Today I want to talk a bit about that Second Age.
Just to refresh: In our first age, he says, we are dependent. We are still immature; we may be students. The second age is the time for independence, maturity, working. The third age is an era for personal achievement and fulfillment, and the fourth age is a final dependence, infirmity and death.
The Second Age
The Second Age is a building time. Typically, we are absorbed in developing careers, making a good living, rearing families. Often, we are taking care of older generations. It is an outwardly focused time. And, let’s be honest, there’s a little bit of keeping up with the Joneses. We’re running on the schedule of Alice in Wonderland’s White Rabbit. “I’m late, I’m late…”
Maybe that’s what has to happen during those years.
No judgment here. I’ve lived it, too.
However, what I know is that we don’t have to continue to embody that story.
Awakening to our Third Age or Third Act, a Multidimensional Life
What I know is that we can Pause, get our bearings and transition to another path, our Third Age, our Multidimensional Life.
Now, I’m not saying it won’t be scary. There’s a nakedness, a vulnerability in this process and that can be quite uncomfortable.
But, just imagine the enormous relief of awakening in midlife, taking off the bindings of earlier times and feeling free. The sweetness of checking in with your quiet inner voice and heeding her message. Learning that you have options as to what comes next, that you are strong and courageous and that it’s okay to rock the boat as you move forward into uncharted waters.
What I wish for your midlife awakening
I believe that this is essential for a full, rich life. Therefore, this is my work in the world:
To empower brave women like you to feel the liberation that comes from speaking to what is alive and true in you.
To guide you as you step into the life-long experiment of being on your own path, even when that path is not clear, of taking small, steady steps in creating and expressing your truest self.
To remind you that there is always the possibility of growing and transforming, of exploring the options of what comes next, of being open to how everything you need is on the path to finding who you are.
Ultimately, it is the freedom of being your true self that wins the day.
Contact me for a coffee chat. Let’s explore how I can help you find that freedom.
