Anthropologist Arnold van Gennep studied indigenous rites of passage and distilled these rituals into 3 parts: separation, liminality, and a transformed reentry. Joseph Campbell popularized van Gennep’s theory into the 3-act Hero’s Journey, which George Lucas credits as the structure for his Star Wars films.

More recently, Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, authors of “The 100-Year Life,” suggested that the tyranny of the 3-stage life (learn, earn, retire) was losing its grip on society. Boomers are taking gap years or going back to get a degree later in life. Meanwhile, Millennials are fired up by FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early).

Near the end of his life nearly 750 years ago, the poet Rumi suggested, “The result of my life is no more than three words: I was raw, I became cooked, I was burnt.” For Modern Elders, it’s “raw, cooked, burnt...repeat.” But, while elders may have become modern, we still have just three “hoods” to define our life cycle: childhood, adulthood, and elderhood.

On a recent sunset walk down Pescadero beach in Baja, I contemplated that my life feels more and more defined by a new three act play: suffering, wisdom, and service. I think I’m in my service phase, but no doubt I still experience the occasional suffering and bump my head on wisdom every once in a while.

What might be the paradigm that defines your 3-act life?