The Third Act

You spent decades mastering responsibility, pressure, and performance. Then one day, you notice things that worked for you in your 30’s and 40’s were not working anymore.

Maybe you’re still working and you’re starting to realize you’re no longer the youngest person at the table. People look at you differently. Your peers are in different parts of the organization and have different goals. Things just don’t feel the same.

Your old definitions of success have stopped working: both for you and for others.

Or maybe you’ve recently retired and find yourself drifting.

Freedom sounded great, but it turns out, freedom without direction is surprisingly unsatisfying.

This site is for people in life’s Third Act, whether you’re still working, recently retired, or quietly questioning what comes next. If you’re looking for purpose, clarity, and momentum, not just more leadership platitudes or a life of empty Saturdays, you’re in the right place.

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Who This Is For

If you:
• Came from a demanding, high-responsibility career
• Were valued for competence, judgment, and reliability
• Expected retirement to feel better than it does
• Are still working, but feel that the old metrics of success are losing their pull
• Sense that something important is missing — but can’t quite name it

You’re in the right place.

Nobody told us how hard this part would be.

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The Core Problem

Most of us prepared meticulously for our careers.
We planned finances, promotions, credentials, and contingencies.

Retirement planning was solely a financial exercise.

Almost none of us prepared for the loss of structure, identity, and vector that comes after.

Living every day like it’s Saturday works for a while.
It is not a recipe for happiness.

What once made us “valuable” – urgency, responsiveness, constant output – starts working against us.

And we’re left wondering why we feel off, restless, or flat.

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My Perspective (Authority Without Chest-Thumping)

I’m Shannon McCullar.

I retired in 2023 after a career spent in high-pressure, high-accountability environments. Like many others, I assumed experience alone would carry me through the transition.

It didn’t.

What I’ve learned since is this:

Reinvention in the Third Act is not like earlier reinventions.
We’re no longer proving ourselves.
We’re no longer advancing someone else’s mission.

Now, we choose the direction.

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The Metaphor That Changed Everything (Your Signature Moment)

In a prior life, I was a pilot.

As a new guy, I ran hard. I did everything. All the time.
I was energetic, sincere… and wildly inefficient.

The old hands had a phrase for it:

“All thrust. No vector.”

Eventually, experience taught us something better.

Not more effort.
Better direction.

Reinvention now works the same way.

We don’t need more hustle.
We need alignment, judgment, and intention.

Low thrust. High vector.

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What This Site Is About

This is where I share:
• What I’m learning about life after 50
• Experiments in purpose, structure, and meaning
• Reflections on identity, work, and reinvention
• Tools and frameworks for choosing direction — deliberately

Some of this is about work.
Some of it is about after work.

All of it is about thriving in what ought to be the pinnacle of our lives.

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Invitation

If you’re navigating your own Third Act —
still capable, still curious, but unwilling to drift —

You’re welcome here.

Nobody told us how to do this well.

That needs to change.

— SM