Act III: How to Make the Last Third of Your Life the Best
Brian Gast
President, Quadrant Corp - Executive Life Coach, Team Alignment and Facilitation
What man needs is not some tension-less state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. – Victor Frankl
Are you ready for Act III of your life? As you may recall, in Act I you built your tower as you discovered who you are and what you can do. You felt invincible, or at least pretended to be. Sure, your ego was a bit inflated, but that allowed you to dream big, set ambitious goals, and persevere in the world.
Facing Your Limitations
Then there was Act II. At this point you are out of survival mode and, humbled by your life’s inevitable setbacks, just a little less full of yourself. You are winning. You spruce up your tower and acquire expensive toys and symbols of success. Yet Act II, which is usually set when you are forty to sixty, is when we deal with aging parents, challenges with our kids, or a friend’s untimely illness or death. Believe it or not, there are limits to what you can control.
During Act II weak sections appear in your tower and you pay a price for the choices you made in Act I. Your marriage is flat, if not broken. You lack close friends. Your body tells you it’s time for better self-care.
As Act II closes, you experience the paradox of success and ask, “How can I have so much but still want more?” You gain more visibility, financial security, and creature comforts, but the quiet moments reveal that something is missing. Act II ends with the question, “Was building a tower all those years a good thing?”
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There Has to be More Than This
You hit fifty or sixty and the curtain is about to come up on Act III. The opening line will be, “There has to be more than this.” You have surpassed all of your business and financial goals, so what new “why” will inspire you for the next five or twenty-five years? Is this the time to sell or the time to ensure you leave a bigger legacy? Something in your soul whispers that getting more of what you already have is like putting new deck chairs on a sinking ship; maybe it’s time to tend to the hull.
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