Nancy Volpe Beringer was embarrassed to be jealous of all the new skills her adult son was learning, but she turned it into a challenge for herself: What would she like to learn if she were young again? Her answer was fashion design — and pursuing that career brought her second-act significance.

The “in-between” spaces in life can be uncomfortable, Life-Worth founder John Busacker has discovered, but pressing on toward what you feel called to can fuel your second-act significance.

Melissa Reaves wasn’t sure how her life was ever going to be OK again after she was fired from a job in an advertising career that had served her bank balance well even if it had stopped bringing her heart alive.

Robert Miller wanted to make music his career from the first time he picked up an instrument in high school – but he did not get to fulfill that desire until after he retired.

We take to the high seas this week with Erik and Emily Orton — which is where they headed in 2014, after Erik’s dream job as a playwright and theatrical producer came to a crashing halt when his off-Broadway show was closed after only a few performances.

In the opening episode of our nine-apart series Second-Act Significance, Kari Schwear recounts how at age 7 she vividly remembers thinking, “Is this all there to life?” – before embarking on a journey of soul-crushing crucibles even as she found success in each of her multiple career stops.

Join us as we launch our newest series, Second-Act Significance, on April 5. It’s a nine-part collection of conversations with guests who have gone from dead ends to new beginnings in their lives and careers.

It’s easy to feel discouraged these days. War has broken out in Ukraine, the COVID pandemic is weakened but not gone and our economy continues to struggle. That’s the challenging news. The hopeful news is that the time has never been better to do our part to help each other weather the storms we’re experiencing.