Is Your Midlife Mission Clear?

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age. - Victor Hugo

Last April, I attended the Christian Leadership Alliance’s 40th Conference in Dallas, Texas.  While there, I heard Peter Greer give a keynote and learned about his book entitled 40/40 Vision: Clarifying Your Mission in Midlife.  Since I want to “Prepare for the Future”—my tenth leadership tip and the focus of my October blog posts—I ordered a copy.

Greer’s work is a 21st Century version of Bob Buford’s 1994 classic Half Time:  Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance Paperback.  In the forward of Greer’s book, Buford said his goal was to find “a parallel career in which I could use my gifts to bring glory to God within my context.”

Buford pointed to a December 2014 cover story in The Atlantic, which summarized research showing the correlation between age and happiness. Life satisfaction steadily declines in the twenties and thirties, bottoms out in the forties, but then increases through the fifties, sixties and seventies.

Click here for a summary of 40/40 Vision.