After three stages of body-mind-persona evolution, a true mission is launched. A call to lliving ones authentic life has been issued to be answered or refused. The rewards and consequences of one's choice are thoroughly explained in Joseph Campbell's the Hero with a Thousand Faces. Accepting the call to authenticity, we surrender selfish life.

My life became full immersion in the job. As a high tech salesman I had lived at the surface of computer and communications technology. Now I had to plunge the depths, to know what the terminology really meant. For the next ten years, my role in life was as a bridge between customer engineering and support groups and our own. I had found my better grail and thought it would be so forever. The company was going through hard times. After ten years, at forty eight, I was laid off from the perfect job. I had never believed the "better days ahead" concept, but there were.

How about you? Was there a pivotal moment in your life near fifty? (Abraham Lincoln was elected President at fifty one.) This idea of a new stage occurring every thirteen years is theoretical. That it fits my life is probably coincidental. Still, the concept is not new. Many have broached the subject: Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Sheehy and more. Whether yours has fit this model is less important than that. 

Leading to Segue 5: Focus