Reading for Your Third Act
This is a curated and growing collection of books on topics that matter to executives entering their Third Act — purpose, longevity, reinvention, legacy, health, and the art of living well in the chapters ahead. Each one was chosen because it has something real to say.
What to Make of a Life
Jim Collins, international bestselling author of Good to Great, offers transformative lessons on constructing—and reconstructing—a life through the cliff moments and transitions we all will face repeatedly in our lives.
What to make of a life?
It is a question we all wrestle with more than once: How do we find our way in the world? How do we make it past the cliffs, significant events that can radically change a life? How do we keep the inner fire burning bright, long and late? Inspired by relentless curiosity, Jim Collins devoted a decade to studying these questions and to minutely analyzing those moments when life flips from clarity to confusion and casts us into a befuddling fog.
His exploration follows various lives side-by-side, paired together at cliffs, and analyzes the different choices made and divergent paths taken. Two rock musicians confronting a future without the group that had brought them success. Two public figures tainted by scandal having to make decisions about how to rebuild their lives. Two suffragists achieving their epic goal and so left with the puzzle of what to do next. Two figure skaters seeking new purpose when their Olympic careers come to an end. What emerges from Collins’s extensive studies—of writers, actors, scientists, leaders and many others—is a framework for understanding how individual lives can be built, sustained and constantly renewed.
By examining the long arc of these remarkable lives, Collins tackles life’s questions. What does it take to:
Discover a deeply fulfilling role in life—one that you are naturally ‘encoded’ for—and then to find a second one, if the first one ends?
Overcome a major cliff—a fracture point that forces choices about what’s next and calls for you to re-envision the years to come?
Make your personal economics work so that you can focus on one big thing that feeds your inner fire?
Navigate the fog, when you feel uncertain or even outright lost, and build confidence step by step?
Build personal momentum decade upon decade, so that your most creative and energetic years are spread across an entire lifetime?
Achieve the imperative to “Know Thyself” and apply self-knowledge to each phase of life?
And for the first time, Collins movingly chronicles his own story to reveal how undertaking this project transformed him, changing his thinking and reshaping his emotions in fundamental ways. Surprising, story-driven, deeply researched, and uplifting, What to Make of a Life is a book like no other, convincingly showing how a richly fulfilled life is within reach of us all.
LifeLaunch
FREDERIC HUDSON & PAMELA MCLEAN
A foundational guide to navigating life's transitions with intention. Hudson and McLean argue that adulthood is not a destination but a series of chapters, each requiring renewal and deliberate design. Essential reading for anyone who senses their current chapter is coming to a close and wants to shape what comes next.
After 50 It's Up to Us
GEORGE H. SCHOFIELD, PH.D.
Schofield makes a compelling case that the second half of life demands new skills — not just wisdom, but agility. The book challenges the assumption that experience alone is enough, and offers a practical framework for staying relevant, adaptable, and engaged well into later life.
Essentialism
GREG MCKEOWN
The disciplined pursuit of less. McKeown argues that the ability to say no — to protect your time, energy, and focus for what truly matters — is the most important skill of our era. For executives entering a new chapter, this book is a powerful lens for deciding what deserves a place in the next act.
Atomic Habits
JAMES CLEAR
Small changes, remarkable results. Clear's system for building good habits and breaking bad ones is grounded in behavioral science and immediately practical. Particularly valuable at life transitions, when the routines that once structured your days no longer apply and new ones need to be deliberately built.
Younger Next Year
CHRIS CROWLEY & HENRY S. LODGE, M.D.
A doctor and his patient make the case that 70% of aging as we know it is optional. Blunt, energizing, and science-backed, this book reframes physical decline as a choice rather than an inevitability. Required reading for anyone who wants the energy to actually live their Third Act.
A Year to Live
STEPHEN LEVINE
What would you do differently if you had one year to live? Levine's deeply contemplative book invites readers to confront mortality not with fear, but with clarity — using it as a compass for what truly matters. A quiet, powerful book that asks the questions most people spend a lifetime avoiding.
The Earned Life
MARSHALL GOLDSMITH & MARK REITER
Goldsmith — one of the world's leading executive coaches — explores what it means to live without regret. Not about achievement, but about alignment: living and giving your all in pursuit of the things that matter most to you. A book about closing the gap between who you are and who you intended to be
Build Your Family Bank
EMILY GRIFFITHS-HAMILTON
A thoughtful guide to building lasting family wealth — not just financial, but human. Griffiths-Hamilton offers a framework for passing on values, governance, and purpose across generations. For executives thinking about legacy, this book shifts the conversation from estate planning to something far more meaningful.
The Inner Work of Age
CONNIE ZWEIG, PH.D.
A Jungian psychologist's exploration of what it means to age from the inside out. Zweig argues that the deepest work of later life is the shift from role to soul — from what we do to who we are. A rare book that takes the inner life of aging seriously, and offers a path toward genuine wisdom and wholeness.
Optimizing Longevity
RUSSELL T. HILL
A practical road atlas for living longer and better. Hill combines health science with lifestyle design to map out what a longer, more vital life actually requires — and how to pursue it with intention. Useful, specific, and grounded in the reality of what the body and mind need to thrive in later decades.