"...the question of meaning in life takes on a special significance when people reach their fifties. Before age fifty... most people have almost an automatic identity either through their work or through their family or both. There is little need or time for big questions of meaning...
But then you reach a stage in life when you enter a new phase. You may be winding down a career, you may be retiring, your children may be off raising children of their own. And for the first time, you are confronted with a combination of big questions and big openings. Because now you can go in a new direction. You can redefine yourself, because the responsibilities you have carried are no longer there...
...the greatest gift people can give themselves is the opportunity to think through what they really believe and value"
It was wonderful to read a confirmation that it is common to take some time in this period of your life (I just turned 50) to look for meaning and set new goals. In my case though, it was not a result of a transition leaving me with much more free time and flexibility (such as retirement). If anything, my responsibilities and work are more time consuming now than they has ever been. Instead, I just used turning 50 as a significant milestone that gave me the incentive to step back and reexamine my goals and efforts. It's somewhat arbitrary compared to using a major life transition to do this reexamination, but it seems to be incentive enough to work for me.
I guess also that the busy nature of my life forced me to accept that I can't do everything that I wanted to, and time is starting to run a little shorter to get major things accomplished, so I better decide just what it is that I want to accomplish from here on.
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