"But in the discrepancy that falls between what one is and what one could be, therein lies the challenge."
[The Freya motto, Hollins University]
[The Freya motto, Hollins University]
The Journey Continues...
During my time in the late 1970s at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, one of the messages that was brought home to me in the first year MBA course "Organizational Theory and Behavior" is that before we try to manage or lead other persons we need to deal with managing ourselves, paying particular attention to the gap between how we perceive ourselves and who we'd ideally like be. As part of this discussion we were introduced to Gail Sheehy's 1974 landmark book "Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life" which is a roadmap of the inevitable changes (personality and sexual) that individuals go through as we journey through the predictable stages or "passages" of our adult lives in our 20s, 30s, 40s and so on.
She followed it up with another book "Pathfinders" in 1981 in which she explains why some of us are able to overcome life crises while others do not. I hope that I am one of the lucky ones -- one of the "true pathfinders" who have discovered "uncommon solutions to the predictable crises and unexpected accidents of adult life" and in the process found ways to "turn these life obstacles into opportunities."
Then, interestingly enough, she wrote a sequel to her original Passages book in 1995 entitled "New Passages: Mapping Your Life Across Time" in which she discovers and maps out a Second Adulthood in middle life whereby men and women have the opportunity to progress through "entirely new passages into lives of deeper meaning, renewed playfulness, and creativity beyond menopause and male menopause." New Passages tells us we have the ability to customize our own life cycle, and that is precisely what I set out to accomplish. And what an eventful journey it has been with many twists and turns, ups and downs, triumphs and failures, but above all lots of joy and hope which "anchors the soul." (Hebrews 6:19)
When I originally created this personal website in January 2018, I was moving swiftly towards the ending years of this Second Adulthood stage of my life passage (how time seems to fly as I get older!!!) and I was looking forward with eager anticipation to what my Third Adulthood would bring in my mid-60s to mid-80s.
So much has happened since then as I kept a relatively low profile during the COVID-19 lockdown period and worked primarily in Jamaica. But now, exactly 5 years later, I still dance to the beat of a different drummer, and I am still walking along Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken":
She followed it up with another book "Pathfinders" in 1981 in which she explains why some of us are able to overcome life crises while others do not. I hope that I am one of the lucky ones -- one of the "true pathfinders" who have discovered "uncommon solutions to the predictable crises and unexpected accidents of adult life" and in the process found ways to "turn these life obstacles into opportunities."
Then, interestingly enough, she wrote a sequel to her original Passages book in 1995 entitled "New Passages: Mapping Your Life Across Time" in which she discovers and maps out a Second Adulthood in middle life whereby men and women have the opportunity to progress through "entirely new passages into lives of deeper meaning, renewed playfulness, and creativity beyond menopause and male menopause." New Passages tells us we have the ability to customize our own life cycle, and that is precisely what I set out to accomplish. And what an eventful journey it has been with many twists and turns, ups and downs, triumphs and failures, but above all lots of joy and hope which "anchors the soul." (Hebrews 6:19)
When I originally created this personal website in January 2018, I was moving swiftly towards the ending years of this Second Adulthood stage of my life passage (how time seems to fly as I get older!!!) and I was looking forward with eager anticipation to what my Third Adulthood would bring in my mid-60s to mid-80s.
So much has happened since then as I kept a relatively low profile during the COVID-19 lockdown period and worked primarily in Jamaica. But now, exactly 5 years later, I still dance to the beat of a different drummer, and I am still walking along Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken":
I have officially made it into my ‘Third Adulthood’ (in my mid-60s) and my journey continues to twist and turn. One of my major areas of focus these days centers around diversity and inclusion (D&I) and the need for industries and policymakers to relook at their business models in order to find ways to remove D&I barriers through a whole society approach which seeks to leave no one behind. I am dreaming dreams, reimaging possibilities, and seeking ways to make them a reality. I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that I will encounter along the way and I hope that you will join me as I continue on this journey!
P.S. I am getting ready to spread my wings once again and take on some exciting new international assignments. More anon, friends…
Renée Anne Shirley
January 1, 2023
Note: To learn more about Freya, a service organization that I was a member of during my years at Hollins, see this article on “Freya at 100”, written in 2003: https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=archival_articles
P.S. I am getting ready to spread my wings once again and take on some exciting new international assignments. More anon, friends…
Renée Anne Shirley
January 1, 2023
Note: To learn more about Freya, a service organization that I was a member of during my years at Hollins, see this article on “Freya at 100”, written in 2003: https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=archival_articles