From Strength to Strength

They should endeavor, too, by means of their counsel and practical wisdom to be of as much service as possible to their friends and to the young, and above all to the state.

In my conversations for this book, many people in the end stages of their careers talked about how they wanted to be remembered. But it doesn’t work: they forget you. People move on.

Only a shift to intrinsic goals will give you what you really want, and prepare you to get on the second curve, which requires relationships and sharing wisdom in the spirit of love. But can you get new goals, especially later in life? Indeed you can, but you need to state your intrinsic values more openly.

No wonder this field favors the old over the young. A recent study in The Chronicle of Higher Education showed that the oldest college professors tended to have the best teaching evaluations within departments.

Satisfaction = Continually getting what you want Success = Continually having more than others Failure = Having less

Even money, which people swear they like simply for what it will buy, becomes largely positional beyond a relatively low level. As

On average, the peak of creative careers occurs at about twenty years after career inception, hence the finding that people usually start declining somewhere between thirty-five and fifty.

and later in my “How to Build a Life” column at The Atlantic.

You can finally relax