Most high achievers are extraordinary at setting goals. Almost none of them has a clear picture of who they want to be when the goals are reached.
If I ask a senior tech leader for their five-year product roadmap and they'll give me one without hesitation.
If ask them what they want their life to look like at 65, I’ll get a long pause.
Not because they haven't thought about it.
But because somewhere along the way, thinking about it started to feel uncomfortable.
Thinking about your third act means acknowledging that the second one has a closing chapter.
And for people whose identity has been built around leading, building, and delivering, that's not a small thing to sit with.
But I’ve know this. Leaders who are going to thrive in their third act won't stumble into it.
They’ll design it, deliberately. They’ll start, often years before it begins.
They’ll ask different questions while they're still in the thick of their careers.
Not just "what do I want to achieve?" but "who do I want to become?"
They’ll think about not only "what's my next role?" but "what kind of life am I building towards?"
The way I see it, is that the third act, at its best, isn't a retreat. It's an arrival.
A place of real choice, real presence, real impact on your own terms.
But it only looks that way if you start drawing the map now.
How actively are you thinking about yours?
Photo by Dmitry Vegelin on Unsplash