Third Act

A few years ago, I worked for Jane Fonda at her Atlanta based charity, G-CAPP. While there, Jane spoke many times about living life in your third act and later went on to write a best-selling book and deliver a brilliant TED talk on the same subject. To paraphrase Jane, she said we are living on average 34 years longer than our great-grandparents did which is a second adult lifetime that's been added to our lifespan. And yet, for the most part, our culture has not come to terms with what this means therefore we are living with the old paradigm of age as an arch. You're born, you peak at midlife and you decline. But many people are taking a new look at what Jane has termed “third act” or the last three decades of life. Jane maintains that this is actually a developmental stage of life with its own significance -- as different from midlife as adolescence is from childhood and that we should all be asking -- how do we use this time? How do we live it successfully? What is the appropriate new metaphor for aging? I don’t know about you but until I turned 50, I had not given it much thought at all. It turns out, most people over 50 feel better, are less stressed, are less hostile, and less anxious and some people are actually even happier. I am not sure if it is because people don’t care as much about what others think of them or they manage their time better or what but I am ready for my third act. Shortly after I was introduced to the concept of the third act, I experienced a life-changing event. My sister Lynn passed away from cancer at the age of 45. She would always say “you need to live life to its fullest because you don’t know how long you have on this Earth”. A few months before my sister passed, she wanted our family to vacation at the beach “to make memories” as Lynn would say. Vacationing at the beach was something my family had done many times when Lynn and I were growing up. We dreamed of living by the beach ever since. We made the greatest memories during all of those visits to the beach. So, at my sister’s request, our family went to Inlet Beach near Seaside, Florida and it was during that precise moment that I knew I would live my third act there. When you set foot on the sugary white sand beaches along the Emerald Coast, your blood pressure drops 10 points and all of your negative energy diminishes. You become the person you want to be! You are less stressed, less hostile and less anxious. Some say you are even happier. This is the reason I built a beach cottage along 30A and am now dividing my time between Atlanta and Santa Rosa Beach during my Third Act. I have joined one of the most successful Realty companies along 30 A, the Premier Property Group as a Realtor in Watercolor and Seacrest Beach so I can help others who dream of life by the beach make memories that last a lifetime. If your plans include the beach for a day, a week, or the rest of your life, please reach out to me. My website is: http://www.thepremierpropertygroup.com/agents/SonaChambers/ As I embrace my 50’s and transition into my third act, I will continue to work with a couple of my long standing non profit clients dividing my time between Atlanta and Florida, helping friends and family enjoy the beach, while pondering new metaphors for aging. Please feel free to join me anytime or write me and let me know what you are doing for your third act. Love and light, Sona