Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? The Path of Purposeful Aging

Grow old on purpose. This book invites readers to navigate a purposeful path from adulthood to elderhood with choice, curiosity, and courage.

Everyone is getting old; not everyone is growing old. But the path of purposeful aging is accessible to all—and it’s fundamental to health, happiness, and longevity.
 
With a focus on growing whole through developing a sense of purpose in later life, Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? celebrates the experience of aging with inspiring stories, real-world practices, and provocative questions. Framed by a long conversation between two old friends, the book reconceives aging as a liberating experience that enables us to become more authentically the person we always meant to be with each passing year.
 
In their bestseller Repacking Your Bags, Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro defined the good life as “living in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right work, on purpose.” This book builds on that definition to offer a purposeful path for living well while aging well.
 

Richard Leider is founder and chairman of Inventure: The Purpose Company, a coaching and consulting firm. Leider has created a wide array of programs and experiences for clients, such as AARP, Caterpillar, Ericsson, Habitat for Humanity, and MetLife. He is ranked by Forbes as one of the top five most respected executive coaches, by Linkage as one of the top fifty executive coaches, and by the Conference Board as a "legend in coaching." He is an executive fellow at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School and Duke Corporate Education, and the author or coauthor of nine books. He was named a 2020-21 nonresident public fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study.

David Shapiro is education director of the Center for Philosophy for Children, an organization that brings philosophy and philosophers into schools and community centers throughout the Puget Sound area. His scholarly interests include applied ethics, philosophy of human rights, and philosophy with children.