In an Atlantic article “The New Old Age” (by David Brooks, Aug 2023), we meet people who’ve spent decades in high-powered careers — CEOs, prosecutors, doctors — suddenly confronting a sobering truth: their professional résumés no longer define them.

David Brooks, shares Anne Kenner’s story — a former federal prosecutor who walked into Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute after decades of high-stakes work.

At Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI), one of the first things fellows are asked to do is discard their résumés. That symbolic act isn’t about erasing achievement. It’s about loosening the grip of a professional identity so tightly bound to status, productivity, and control that it often leaves little room for what comes next.

So on day one, she too, had to discard her résumé. Imagine that: everything she’d built, every title, every accolade — set aside.

For Kenner, this was both terrifying and liberating. She’d been trained to argue cases, to prosecute criminals, to live in a world of rules and outcomes. Suddenly, she was back in classrooms with a backpack, writing papers, and eventually — writing plays. The structure and certainty were gone. In their place? Creativity, vulnerability, storytelling.

Some DCI fellows describe panic attacks, vulnerability, even lying on the floor in tears. But as they let go of their old definitions, something surprising emerged: creativity, friendships, storytelling, healing.

It makes me wonder: do we really live two lives — a professional and a personal one — or is it one long arc of becoming?

Some of us see sharp divisions: career first, then family, hobbies, or leisure after retirement. Others — like Kenner — discover that the essence never leaves. What drove you professionally doesn’t vanish; it shifts into new forms. The pursuit of truth in a courtroom can become the pursuit of truth on a stage. The leadership that once built businesses can now build communities.

Maybe the real work is not in separating, but in aligning…seeing that your life’s purpose is continuous. That the “you” behind the résumé is the same “you” behind the art, the mentorship, the relationships, the legacy.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

If you laid aside your résumé, what would remain? What thread runs through both your professional and personal life — the driver that never really retires?

This is where MCODE becomes powerful. It uncovers the inner motivations that don’t disappear when careers shift. Whether it’s the drive to realize a vision, to take charge, to develop others, or to architect solutions — those drivers show up everywhere: in how you lead, how you create, how you relate, even how you rest. As the saying goes, how you do anything is how you do everything. Your motivations are the continuity. They are the throughline.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your purpose ends when your career does, let’s talk. Alignment isn’t something you retire from. It’s the thread that ties your whole life together. Book a Clarity Conversation™ and let’s explore what your Encore Years — or your very next chapter — could look like.