Life used to be fairly predictable: a linear progression from birth to school to marriage-kids-work to retirement: in that order. And these predictable life stages were tightly linked to age: people knew exactly what they were supposed to do based on how old they were.But times have changed. We're living in a new century with new challenges and opportunities. We're facing new enemies, fears, hopes and dreams in an ever-shrinking and increasingly volatile world. Economic and technologic complexities enable us to perform almost any task from almost anywhere. Life expectancy has skyrocketed to 77, and promises to edge even higher. New generations of highly educated, self-reliant men and women are seeking challenges, adventures, relationships and meaning throughout their life, at every age. As a result, we're starting to question the relevance of living life through a series of age-driven linear life passages with no turning back. And we're no longer buying products and services based on this long-held, over-generalized age-defines-the-person and youth is the target model.
As a result, predictable life stages are a thing of the past, and age no longer dictates the activities and lifestages we're involved in. Instead, people are beginning to live their lives according to cycles. Now people go back to school in their thirties, have kids in their forties, change careers in their fifties and "unretire" in their sixties.
At its essence, this is a lifecycle revolution that releases us from the age-old assembly line of life "passages" that each ended with a door sealed shut to prevent us from ever turning back. The personal, social, political, and economic ramifications of this shift are profound, promising to shake up everything we do, and to change how and when we do it.
Many of us are already embarking on more cyclic life paths, but we're so busy with the doing of it, we may not be cognizant of the effects this sea change is creating for our overall society.
Cycles: How We Will Live, Work, and Buy by Maddy Dychtwald (published by The Free Press) takes you through this journey in a clear and practical approach, featuring a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the pivotal aspects of the lifecycle revolution and their impact on you, on society, and on business-at-large. First, she describes how we're breaking free of the outdated assembly line of closed-door life passages. Then she draws an exciting picture of the new lifecycle model that is emerging‹a more flexible, open-door approach to life's options. Then, she connects the dots to business, describing many of the ways that cyclic consumers will impact the marketplace and workplace in the years and decades to come.
Table of Contents
Introduction (click here to read it now)
Chapter 1: The Path to Lifecycle Liberation
Chapter 2: Lifelong Learners
Chapter 3: The DaVinci's: Cyclic Careers
Chapter 4: Love Cycles
Chapter 5: The Virtual Family
Chapter 6: Re-Creation
Chapter 7: Recoverers and Rejuvenators
Chapter 8: Metamorphosis: Retiring Retirement
Chapter 9: The Cyclic Self
Chapter 10: The Cyclic Society