In his article entitled, Life’s Third Age, Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D. presents some ideas about the third age of life:
The idea of a third age of life is a concept borrowed from the European tradition of adult education. In life’s first age, from birth to approximately thirty, the primary tasks of men and women center on biological development, learning, partnering, and procreating. During the early millennia of human history, the average life expectancy of most people wasn’t much higher than the end of the first age, and as a result, the predominant thrust of society was oriented toward these most basic drives. In the second age, from about thirty to sixty, the concerns of adult life focus on the formation of family, child-rearing, and productive work. Until the last century, most people couldn’t expect to live much beyond the second age, and societies were centered on the concerns of this period of life.
…with our longer lives, and the coming of the boomer “age wave,” an uncharted and potentially magnificent new third age of life is unfolding, which brings new freedoms, new responsibilities and new purposes to adulthood.
These ideas are very similar to the purpose and mission of This Point Forward — to make the next phase of your life the best phase. Dr. Dychtwald also states,
And there surely is a need for the contributions of third agers, particularly during this high-anxiety period in history: so many in our communities really need more involvement from grown-ups. Rather than have us all move off the playing field, they need our help. They need us to share—not hoard—our life experience and perspective, as coaches, mentors, teachers, guides, and surrogate parents and grandparents.
Read the article to learn more about your “third age of life” and how you can make it the best age of your life.
