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Informationen zum Autor John Kotre Klappentext ARE YOU STANDING IN THE WAY OF YOUR OWN FULFILLMENT?If, like millions of adults, you have ever asked yourself, "What is the purpose of my life?" then you will discover in this thoughtful book an original guide for finding life's meaning. Acclaimed psychologist John Kotre offers a surprising solution for soul searchers in their thirties, forties, midlife, and beyond. The key to overcoming the obstacles that get in the way of finding fulfillment in adulthood is to shape a legacy that will last beyond our lifetimes.Expanding upon the psychological phenomenon of generativity -- a term Erik Erikson first coined fifty years ago to explain how individuals create forms of life and work or legacies that live on after their deaths -- Kotre shows us how to cultivate a desire to impact future generations. Building a solid business or developing a new idea can be as vital as raising children or sharing our wisdom with young ones -- and for each of us, finding the kind of generativity that is right is half the challenge.Kotre clearly outlines a step-by-step pathway we will move along to a more complete and fulfilling life. By listening to the past, finding a voice, and selecting an audience, we will be able to create and grow. In the first step, we begin by talking to our past, dealing with positive or negative legacies received from our parents. The second step is called stopping the damage because it is the stage when we as parents can buffer or protect our children from our own painful legacies. In the third step we find our voice; the fourth and fifth steps call for blending our creations with the creations of others. With selecting, step six, we choose what to hold onto, which leads to step seven -- letting go of our creations, such as seeing our children off to find their own way, or selling a business when the time comes to move on. And it is in the final step, when we learn to share, that we experience the ultimate fulfillment.John Kotre says that creating a legacy that lasts is within each person's grasp. This innovative and sophisticated guide will inspire anyone who may be suffering from a midlife crisis, seeking guidance in life decisions, or engaged in the universal search for meaning. Chapter 1 The Idea Whose Time Has Come There is a word that puts a finger on a dilemma that individuals and society at large increasingly experience in their lives. A woman, 35, told me about her life as a business consultant, in particular about sitting in a motel at the end of a grueling day and asking herself why her clients were paying $275 an hour for her services -- and why she was prostituting herself to provide them. She had been thinking about all the bits and pieces of her life -- about the pet she had just lost, about the children she never had, about her husband telling her to quit, about the one time in a previous job when she actually saw her efforts make a difference in people's lives. But now...what was the lasting value in all this? Did it matter to anyone? Who cared? She didn't use the word, but there was a void in her "generativity." A man of 64 spoke of a similar unhappiness that had afflicted him some ten years before. He hadn't heard of the word "generativity" either. He had worked as a journalist in his young adult years but then took a job with a public utility company at the age of 43 because he wanted more security for his family. He began writing and editing for the company's news and information service, developing stories about ordinary workers who sometimes took heroic risks, or about small, out-of-the way communities his company served. He loved being a kind of Charles Kuralt "on the road." But then in his mid-50s he realized how unhappy he was becoming. The company had shifted emphasis, wanting hard facts now, not soft "people" stories. He found himself working on briefing books that didn't reflect him.<...
