The person you become next year--or ten years from now--is up to you! You can become the gloriously vital person you were meant to be. You can reach into every precious corner of your soul to liberate all your hidden potential--to radiantly blossom forth, fully yourself. This book guides you through that process, offering 46 inspiring ways to make the rest of your life the most dynamic and fulfilling of all. The author shares eye-opening secrets of the exceptionally vital, effective, ever-growing people she studied--attitudes and techniques you can adopt for yourself. You'll learn how to: *Discover and live your passion *Create satisfying relationships and friendships *Deflate your problems by massaging them *Develop superb communication skills *Exercise your body--and your brain *Cultivate a winning attitude, and much more! "A terrific new book. . . It's an easy read . . . and it does make readers think." -- THE SEATTLE TIMES "This book speaks to the heart of the matter. Thanks for spreading positive, uplifting messages to our world." -- Richard Carlson, Ph.D., author of "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. . . And It's All Small Stuff" "Undoubtedly one of the most fascinating books I have read. . . . Would appeal to both young and old, those who want to make their lives count for something. I urge you to check out this book." -- Francie Hill, THE RINGLING EAGLE From the Back Cover: THE 2001 NATIONAL MATURE MEDIA AWARD WINNING BOOK You Have the Power to Grow Forever Better The person you become next year--or ten years from now--is up to you! You can become the gloriously vital person you were meant to be. You can reach into every precious corner of your soul to liberate all your hidden potential--to radiantly blossom forth, fully yourself. This book guides you through that process, offering 46 inspiring ways to make the rest of your life the most dynamic and fulfilling of all. The author shares eye-opening secrets of the exceptionally vital, effective, ever-growing people she studied--attitudes and techniques you can adopt for yourself. YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO: Discover and live your passion Create satisfying relationships and friendships Deflate your problems by massaging them Develop superb communication skills Exercise your body--and your brain Cultivate a winning attitude--and much more! Dottie Billington, Ph.D., a former business woman, is a writer, consultant, teacher, and trainer. Earning a Ph.D. in adult development in midlife, her leading-edge researach on how and why some adults continue to grow as long as they live and her widely published articles have earned numerous awards and have attracted worldwide interest. Dottie lives in Redmond, Washington. CHAPTER ONE YOUR BEST IS YET TO BE "Your capacities are trembling to be born." --Abraham Maslow As we walked together one crisp winter morning, my friend Katie confided--looking a little embarrassed, "You know, sometimes I'm afraid of the years ahead, of the direction I'm going. I see too many people growing narrow and negative, bored and boring. They seem stuck. How do I know I won't get that way? Her words stunned me. This dynamic, attractive thirty-seven-year-old with tousled curls and bubbling enthusiasm, who seems to have everything going for her--challenging work, good friends, a loving family--dreads her future? At that moment I realized this book had to be written. The problem is, we Americans have become obsessed with youth. Terrified of growing older, we stomp--kicking and screaming--into midlife. Somewhere along the way we've lost the wisdom of the ages--that each succeeding year can bring experience and wisdom you could not have had earlier. Each year is meant to be the flowering of all that came before. The important thing to understand is that the picture of life we grew up with has changed. Instead of looking and feeling old by forty, or sixty, we can expect to remain bumptiously bodacious well into our eighties, even our nineties--if we develop a positive attitude and live a reasonably healthy lifestyle (both of which we now know count more than our genes). Since the beginning of the twentieth centure our life expectancy has grown more than in all the previous twenty centuries. Thus, we have been given the precious gift of time. So, whatever your age--twenty or eighty--make the most of it! Inside you, waiting, lies potential beyond your imagination. Your future years can be a time of transformation, meaning, purpose. You can continue to grow in every way--your mind, your wisdom (of course becoming a guru does take time--how many thirty-year-old sages are there?), your relationships, your gifts and abilities, the way you feel about yourself, and yes, even physically. And you can grow happier: Research tells us we can discover more pleasure each succeeding decade, even as we move into our eighties and beyond. The point is, you can choose to make the rest of your life your best years ever. The purpose of this book is to