A client of mine pointed me to an article in the current issue of Newsweek:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16608336/site/newsweek/from/ET/

The article is entitled, "The First Day of the Rest of My Life."  The author, Sara Davidson, is a baby-boomer, established as a writer with several published books, and a recent transplant from LA to Boulder. A few notes after reading the article:

• Davidson talks about the "narrows"–the phase in your life when everything gets harder before it gets easier.  I think of it as a time in your life when you’re not sure what will happen next but everything has changed–the kids are off on their own, your spouse may or may not be with you, the steady career has been upturned.  I like the metaphor of the narrows of a body of water–things get a bit squeezed before opening up again.

• The trend of finding meaningful work that is mine and mine alone is here to stay.  Davidson talks about not being able to find the same success that she once had as a writer, having doors shut, and then realizing that what will sustain her is being in the creative process, in the flow. It goes back to following your heart, as the only north star that is constant.

• This period of time is analogous to William Bridge’s "Neutral Zone," when something has ended but the new beginning has not yet started. His book, Managing Transitions, gives a roadmap for individuals and organizations to navigate change. The Neutral Zone can not only be confusing and disorienting, it also holds the possibility for great creativity. Which leads me to my next thought.

• In researching a talk I’m giving about traits of extraordinary leaders, I found an online video of the Stanford commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave in 2005. Jobs tells three stories and one of them is about "love and loss."  He talks about getting kicked out of Apple at 30 years old, initially being disoriented and lost, and then coming into the most creative period of his life–when he founded the companies, NeXT and Pixar. NeXT would later be bought by Apple and provide some of the core technology for their product line today and Pixar is the largest animation company in the world. Not a bad reinvention. In his speech, Jobs says that leaving Apple was the best thing that ever happened to him.

The first day of the rest of your life is a great place to be. And as Davidson points out, it takes a leap of faith to believe that you will get through the narrows–not unscathed, but happier, more satisfied, and ultimately, reinvented.

Maybe part of living well is regular reinvention.  We can go kicking and screaming. Or we can surrender to the narrows.