I’m hopeful that we will retire the U-curve of Happiness, which shows that our life satisfaction dips from our early 20s to our late 40s when it bottoms out with happiness on the horizon after that. Instead, we’ll have life’s inevitable ups and downs, but because we chose meaning over money as we entered our 20s, we will feel an agency over our life that our Boomer and GenXer family members never felt.
I’m hopeful that Millennials and GenZers will make sabbaticals or gap years normal as they realize working themselves to death in their 20s through 50s makes no sense to “earn leisure when you’re a geezer” (as a friend of mine suggests). Maybe we deserve a healthy amount of leisure our whole lives.
I’m hopeful that younger people will embrace not just lifelong learning, but as they get into early midlife, they’ll explore “long life learning,” how to curate a life that’s as deep and meaningful as it is long by better understanding the prevalent opportunities of the midlife life stage.
Here’s a video of me in a kid’s playground, offering three pieces of advice to someone younger than me.
Lastly, our “Life Begins @ 50” essay contest was just launched and gives anyone turning from 48-54 the opportunity to create a ritual for your 2024 birthday with 7 of your friends with a free workshop celebration for three nights at our new Santa Fe campus. You need to enter by February 15, and you can do so HERE.
-Chip