The Biggest Question of the Third Act

When I was about five years old, a group of boys chased my sister and me home from school, calling us "Blackie."

That day I decided something.

I decided it was dangerous to be seen.

I decided it was safer to become invisible.

So I learned to fit in.

Many years later, while teaching about discovering who you really are and finding the threads of meaning in your life, I heard myself say something I'd never forgotten:

"When you spend your life fitting in, you don't know how to stand out."

Every time I say those words, I hear a collective sigh of recognition.

Because I don't think I'm the only one.

Maybe you weren't chased home from school.

Maybe no one ever called you names.

But somewhere along the way, many of us learned that fitting in was safer than standing out.

So we became who we needed to be.

We kept the peace.

We were agreeable.

We put ourselves somewhere near the bottom of the list.

Until one day, something begins to change.

We find ourselves in the third act of life.

For the first time in decades, there's a little space.

And in that space, something begins to rise.

The woman we've spent a lifetime hiding whispers, "What about me?"

Maybe that's why the third act matters so much.

It's often the first season of life where we have enough space to stop fitting in.

Maybe the biggest question of the third act isn't...

"What is my purpose?"

Maybe it's...

"Who would I be if I stopped trying so hard to fit in?"

This is your Soul Nudge.