By Seth Green
One year ago, we launched a new initiative at the University of Chicago to support accomplished individuals seeking to transition from their longstanding careers into meaningful next chapters. Called the Leadership & Society Initiative (LSI), the endeavor has since brought 42 extraordinary Fellows to our campus to reflect on their lives, engage in our eco-system of big ideas, and design impact-driven futures.
As dean of the Graham School, the university’s home for lifelong learning, I’ve had a front row seat to see LSI take shape and to watch our LSI Fellows thrive on campus and well beyond. As I reflect on what we’ve learned, five lessons stand out.
Lesson #1: Careers are about more than work.
Individuals typically join the LSI Fellowship within a year of finishing a seminal chapter in their career. Talking to our fellows about their transition, it is immediately clear that their careers have been about much more than a paycheck. Fellows said they derived deep meaning and joy from the friendships and relationships they built through their careers. Their careers also served as an important element of their identity and as a platform for accomplishing goals. And waking up every day with a mission offered them a daily source of purpose and, in a dynamic economy, a constant inspiration for learning.
The end of a longstanding career, then, requires reimagining your relationships, identity, impact, and learning agenda. Playing golf or pickleball may be a valued hobby in this next phase of life, but it will not fill the void. Individuals need to know their values, have a clear sense of their identity, and have a roadmap for building the relationships and driving the impact that will give them meaning.
Lesson #2: Your next chapter starts by looking inward.
When LSI Fellows arrive on campus, many want to start tactical planning immediately. Their calendars have opened, and they are eager to fill them. But we encourage them to start their journeys on campus by reading Aristotle and asking deep questions about their values and purpose. Why?
The end of one’s longstanding career presents an unprecedented opportunity: the freedom to set goals based on one’s intrinsic motivations. But it can be hard to know these motivations after decades of building one’s career. Journalist David Brooks, who serves on LSI’s faculty, often talks with fellows about the need to pivot from an extrinsic accountability mindset toward an internal locus of incentive. During our core career, someone else has typically built the mountain we are climbing. As we ascend the mountain, we may no longer be as closely tuned in to our inner goals.
LSI’s curriculum thus starts with a course, taught jointly by faculty from the university’s Booth School of Business and the Humanities Division, where fellows contemplate their core values by reflecting on their life experiences and reading timeless philosophical texts.
Lesson #3: The world needs you, and you need the world.
Alongside encouraging self-discovery, LSI’s curriculum explores society’s most pressing challenges, from food insecurity to climate change to democratic backsliding. The aim is not simply about learning; it’s about discovering one’s yearning. What societal issues matter to you? How can you apply your distinctive talents to make a difference on these issues?
These questions are not entirely altruistic. Abundant research has shown that people feel happier and more fulfilled when they are making a meaningful contribution to the world. Defining your purpose and your envisioned impact is vital, especially when a full-time career may no longer serve as a cornerstone of your impact.
Lesson #4: Travel lightly.
When our LSI Fellows finally begin designing their “Purpose Plan” for what’s next, professor Harry Davis has a message for them: “travel lightly.” Davis’ idea is that you build up baggage over your life and career. Making a successful transition is about deciding which bags to carry with you and which to leave behind. Just like when you are traveling for vacation, you need to bring some of your wardrobe with you, but you do not want to be weighed down with excessive luggage. Selectively choosing where you to go and what to bring with you is critical to your success.
Lesson #5: The need for transitional space in midlife is large and growing.
Our society has been historically structured around a three-part life: you learn, you earn, you retire. Today, though, people are living longer, and many are seeking to rewire, instead of retire, at the end of a long career. But few spaces exist for individuals to plan such transitions and to renew their skills in a dynamically changing environment. Indeed, we have received over 500 candidacies for our 42 LSI fellowship slots—one of many signs of the overwhelming demand for such opportunities.
As a university, we recently decided to add a second pathway, called Crafting Your Next Chapter, to help open our doors wider and engage more individuals in the power of midlife discernment. Other universities are joining the effort, too, and we’re hopeful to see midlife transition as a core feature of higher education in the future.
Seth Green is the dean of the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Chicago. During his tenure, the Graham School has continued its eminence in the lifelong liberal arts and launched new initiatives to support leaders in designing purposeful encore chapters.
