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How To Create Your Own Super Second Life; What Are You Going To Do With Your Extra 30 Years?

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Would you like to reinvent yourself but don't know where to begin?

Now there's a workbook to help you figure out what you really want in the rest of your life and how to make it happen.

"How to Create Your Own Super Second Life: What Are You Going to Do With Your Extra 30 Years?" is designed to give readers tools to identify their dreams and figure out how to turn them into reality.

Author Gordon Burgett, a California freelance writer, derives the book's subtitle from statistics. Average life expectancy, which was 48 years in 1900, now is 78.

In Burgett's perception, people at midlife now tend to latch on to one of three views of where to go from here:

(1) No view at all; let fate be the guide.

(2) A quest to prolong youth, which could work for a while.

(3) A vision of self in the driver's seat on a road headed for adventure.

The author makes a good case for the latter, then assists the reader in assessing what he or she has today. The next step is deciding what to take on the next journey and what to leave behind.

Answering this question is designed to jump-start the planning process: "If you had all the money, time and energy you needed and were free from outside constraints, what would you do in your extra 30 years?

The book then walks readers through such steps as compiling a dream list, putting dreams to a commitment test and sorting them by priority and time frame. Couples are urged to figure out what dreams they do and don't have in common and how to proceed from there. Twenty-eight work sheets and forms provide a detailed structure for the process. The last two steps are factoring in financial resources and creating an action plan.

The book also lists 200 activities (they include classes, volunteer work and creative pursuits) to consider when planning a second life.

"You're going to live the extra years anyway," Burgett says. "Why not fill them with joy, fun and purpose?"

Alas, he maintains, it won't just happen on its own.

I became uncomfortable within the first 20 pages or so, mainly because he seemed to repeatedly say how great life was going to be without sex from now on (a sensitive subject for most of us mid-lifers, I think), but he failed to reassure me as to why. He just made some references about younger people being driven to reproduce, and that was not an issue for us now, and isn't that great. He then launched into a series of lists as part of an action plan for the future, but I still didn't feel "on board" with his point of view yet, and got frustrated very quickly. His book seems aimed at those who are willing to ride the wave of his enthusiasm without much questioning, and to jump right into planning and action. I found some of his writing to be composed of mixed metaphors and unclear paragraphs, which added to my feeling that this book had not been as well thought out as it could have been.

I'd noticed he made several references to Barbara Sher's "It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now." I decided to buy her book as well, and am getting much more out of it than this one. I find that Ms. Sher's book anticipates and thoroughly answers all of my questions and concerns about issues of age perception, biologically-based behavior at different life stages, sex, self worth and affirming one's unique gifts, and I'm only half way through.

2 days after receiving Ms. Sher's book, I threw this one away. If you want to understand what's happening at this time of your life, and come to feel really good about where you've been and where you're going, I recommend "It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now."

I saw myself in How to Create Your Own Super Second Life so clearly. I am in the Second Tier: 55+, and I am dealing with many of the issues you discuss. I enjoyed the quotes scattered throughout the book and your irreverent sense of humor in describing some of the facts and fiction about aging.

I found the exercises very useful. The super second life dream list was particularly poignant for me as I realized how long I have let my dreams stay inside without being realized. I am just now, at 57, starting to let go of the "shoulds" and am looking at the "wants" that I have put on the shelf for another time.

I also found the Money Worksheet very helpful in focusing in on how much I have and what I need to retire. I realized I had more than I thought, and that the things I would like to do in retirement do not cost that much.

Too sum it up, I found the book thought-provoking, easy-to-read, and a very good primer in giving myself permission to have a super second life, with the tools to make that happen. The personal, conversational tone of the book made it very enjoyable to read.

I first met Gordon Burgett when he was an administrator in the Cal State University system when he was extricating himself from the bureacracy. He was about 40, a husband and father, and determined to changes careers. I thought he was truly brave, ready to turn his back on a comfortable salary and a great retirement program to lecture and publish on his own.

He made his move. It was scary to behold, but stimulating, too. Burgett's inspiration later prompted me to start my own new career as a successful writer.

How to Create Your Own Super Second Life is Gordon Burgett. Follow this manual--packed with practical steps and suggestions--into the most satisfying time of your life, the precious years after "retirement."˙

Retiring only lets you stop what you are doing; retiring is being unemployed. Turning 65 is not the goal; it is an opportunity to do what you have always wanted to do. Reminding us that people are living far longer than they used to, Burgett helps us plan for the future.

Utilizing lists, forms and worksheets, Burgett helps us assess our assets and liabilities. He asks us to take stock of our money, skills, things, health and friends. He shows us how to design a future to fit our individualized situation. Then he describes how to implement the plan. Now if he could just guarantee me another 30 years. . . :)

Gordon Burgett is the author of 18 books and more than 1,600 magazine articles. Through his writing and speaking, he has spent (the first half of) a lifetime helping others.

As a publisher, author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles with some 40 years in the business, I find this guide to be just what I need at this time in my life. DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com.