From Strength to Strength

In your next phase of life . . . What activities will you keep? What activities will you evolve and do differently? What activities will you let go of? What new activities will you learn?

Use things. Love people. Worship the divine.

Here’s the bottom-line summary about your relationships—the key points for cultivating your aspen grove: • You need strong human connections to help you get on the second curve and flourish. • No matter how introverted you are, you cannot expect to thrive into old age without healthy, intimate relationships. • For married people, a loving, companio

They should endeavor, too, by means of their counsel and practical wisdom to be of as much service as possible to their friends and to the young, and above all to the state.

Even money, which people swear they like simply for what it will buy, becomes largely positional beyond a relatively low level. As

An intimate friendship, whether it be from the companionate love of your spouse or an Aristotelian “perfect friend,” is better than any professional success. It will salve the wounds of professional decline like nothing else.

And that means not trying fruitlessly to get ahead on a speeding treadmill by falling over and over again for marketing gimmicks. It means turning the treadmill off by managing our wants. In the words of the Spanish Catholic saint Josemaría Escrivá, “He has most who needs least. Don’t create needs for yourself.”[19]

Most of our days, I am thinking me, me, me. It’s like watching the same dreary television show, over and over, all day long. It’s so boring. Faith forces me into the cosmos, to consider the source of truth, the origin of life, and the good of others. This focus brings refreshment and relief.

The forced separation from ordinary ambitions temporarily rightsizes one’s life. The Dalai Lama has often reminded me that I am “one of seven billion.” By this, he does not mean that I am insignificant or just like everyone else. Rather, he is encouraging me to zoom out from my narrow, earthbound perspective on my life, my work, my relationships, m