Medical and technological breakthroughs have, in effect, given most of us the equivalent of a thirty-year life bonus. As a result, we face a new period in the middle of our lives, what Europeans call the third age, which challenges us to change the way we live and transform the way we age. Based on a major study of the unfolding lives of a select group of men and women (from mid-forties to eighties), The Third Age shares their collective wisdom and illustrates how we can creatively redesign our lives in anticipation of and through our added years.Rediscovering a youthful spirit and staying truly involved in life demands an attitudinal shift, a resistance to outdated stereotypes, and an effort to balance the seemingly paradoxical pulls on our time and energy. Practically instructive and powerfully inspiring, The Third Age expertly guides us toward and through the second half of our lives.