AARP The Magazine - January/February 2011

TURNING POINT

THE BEST
OF YOUR LIFE

By Jane Pauley

How to know when you’ve finally arrived

The Measure of a Life

IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS Before you can succeed, experts say, you must define success

What does success mean?

For my father, success was measured in upgrades to his company car—from Chevy to Pontiac to Chrysler—in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, respectively. Success was putting the family in that car for a vacation trip to Florida, even though he was a salesman who spent much of his life behind the wheel.

For my mother, success was defined by upgrades in the appliances that made her housework easier. One remarkable day an Electrolux salesman rang the bell. No sooner had he finished his vacuum sweeper demo than my frugal mother bought one, leaving her daughters gaping in surprise.

My parents were people of modest means; they also measured success by having a little money that they didn’t have to spend. By their own standards they were successful.

But what does success mean now? Urban studies theorist and author Richard Florida argues that young people today see flexibility and creativity as key to professional status.

A generation ago no one but an art student would have thought such a thing, he says.

Yet these ideas seem to be resonating powerfully among their parents, too, particularly as we evaluate our postcareer lives—which

could extend 10, 20, or even 30 years! The pursuit of flexibility and creativity is a powerful force behind the trend of reinvention.

Consider Betsy McCarthy, whom I met last year while reporting a segment for NBC’s Today show.

Betsy’s job as a
health care execu-
tive gave her all the
trappings of suc-
cess: promotions,
a six-figure salary,
At 57 she left the corporate world and fol-
lowed her passion—knitting—to pursue a ca-
reer as an author, pattern maker, and teacher.
Her priorities had changed. Flexibility and
creativity had become the defining words in
her estimation of success. In the bargain, she
discovered her essential self—or, to be more
accurate, rediscovered it. “I was going back
to who I was when I was a little girl,” she says.
“I was very happy making doll dresses and
doing creative things with fabric, with color.”
Times change and people change, and so
does the definition of success. ;

Award-winning journalist Jane Pauley is AARP’s Your Life Calling ambassador.

THINK BIG

Look beyond your job. “Put career success in a larger context of success defined by creative, relationship, and spiritual development,” advises Douglas LaBier, Ph.D., author of Modern Madness.

PUT HAPPINESS FIRST

Studies show that happy people are more productive at work. To boost your happiness, “practice grateful thinking and excess kindness,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., author of The How of Happiness.

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: ANDREW ECCLES (STYLIST: ANN CARUSO—THE WALL GROUP; HAIR: JAMES MCNALLY/MARIO DIAB SALON; MAKEUP: GREGG HUBBARD); ILLUS TRATION BY KEN ORVIDAS

PURSUE PASSIONS

Do work that
excites you, says
Susan Biali, M. D.,
author of Live a Life
You Love: “Classic
‘American dream’
success is not
set up to fulfill
a person within.”
—Julia Winkler