Purpose - Our Evolving Superpower

The Secret to our Third Act

We’ve talked about Gratitude and how it can manifest a continued sense of well-being. We discussed the difference between Happiness and Joy. Both are also critical to our mental and physical health, but Joy is intentional. It’s a choice and a decision.

We no longer need to build an empire, we simply need to focus on meaning. Here is a beautiful secret: purpose in our third act can often be deeper and more impactful than when we were in our twenties, thirties and forties.

Why?

Earlier in our lives, purpose was often tied to roles we played. These roles may or may not still be valid to you, so we need to evolve our purpose toward something more personal and meaningful. Here are the most common roles:

• The Partner - The Partner is being a reliable partner to the person you have chosen to share your life with. Partner can also mean trusted friends and family with whom you interact regularly. Think of it as people we choose to have in our tight circle of individuals. We go to them if we need someone we know will be there for us. It’s also when we have to be that person for someone else.

• The Parent - The Parent is the role of caregiver, whether it is a child, a parent, a pet or any other being who depends upon us for daily life. Our purpose is to help the person under our care survive, assist, thrive, grow and learn.

• The Provider - The Provider is the person who supports the infrastructure and often builds it, as well. Providers have a clear purpose - support others as a top priority. But there’s also emotional and nurturing providers, recreational and fun providers, support providers: feeding the family, providing insurance, providing guidance, moral guardrails and countless other day to day tasks to support the people who rely upon us.

• The Career - For some, The Career is about earning enough money to support ourselves and our families. More often than not, it is a critical piece of our identity. It’s not only what you do, it’s who we are. Doctor, Lawyer, Artist, Candlestick Maker, Caregiver…it’s often the second thing people say about themselves after their name.

Having our purpose revolve around these four archetypes is part of the adult human experience of life on this planet. There are certainly other purposes tied to our identities. So when we age, retire, our kids have moved out and we may find ourselves more alone than we anticipated - how do we create purpose?

Our Third Act - defined here as being over the age of 55, can still provide opportunities to refine our purpose. In these later years, purpose becomes more internal and intentional. It’s less about providing and more about contributing. Some examples of purpose in our third act include:

• Mentoring someone

• Volunteering in ways that reflect our values

• Storytelling so others understand the world as we see it and for younger family members, understanding where they came from

• Creating art, writing, gardening, advocating, teaching, restoring, learning new skills and topics that interest us

• Finally, becoming who we were too busy to be before.

Purpose later in life is not about starting over, it’s about distilling and refining. It’s what remains and matters when the noise quiets.

A couple of things worth remembering

We don’t need a grand mission to have purpose. Living honestly is purpose. We are not fading and we are not done. We are in a powerful season, where gratitude steadies us, joy sustains us and purpose quietly reshapes itself into something even deeper than before. We’ve survived long enough to know that life is not only short, it’s fragile.

Carpe Diem.