with it a certain relief. Whew the boomer in Toronto or Osaka sighs. “I’ve got a couple more decades.”
But the relief quickly dissipates—because almost as soon as the sigh fades,
people enter the third stage. Upon comprehending that they could have another twenty-five years, sixty-year-old boomers look
back twenty-five years—to when they were thirty-five—and a sudden thought clonks them on the side of the head.
“Wow. That sure happened fast they say. Will the next twenty-five years race by like that If so, when am I going to do something
that matters When am Igoing to live my best life When am I going to make a difference in the world?”
Those questions, which swirl through conversations taking place at boomer kitchen tables around the world, may sound touchy-feely. But they’re now occurring at a rate that is unprecedented inhuman civilization. Consider:
Boomers are the largest demographic cohort inmost western countries, as well as in places like Japan,
Australia, and New Zealand. According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, the United States alone has about 78 million boomers—which means that, on average, each year more than four million Americans hit this soul-searching, life-pondering birthday That’s more than 11,000 people each day, more than 450 every hour.
In other words, in America alone, one hundred boomers turn sixty everythirteen minutes.
Every thirteen minutes another hundred people—members of the wealthiest and best-educated generation the world has ever known—begin reckoning with their mortality and asking deep questions about meaning, significance, and what they truly want.
One hundred people. Every thirteen minutes. Every hour. Of everyday. Until
2024.
When the cold front of demographics meets the warm
front of unrealized dreams, the result will be a thunderstorm of purpose the likes of which the world has never seen.
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