I don’t listen to every episode of the podcast Smartless, but I do dip in every now and then. And I’m glad I listened to the recent episode with Rashida Jones. In particular, it was fascinating to hear the discussion about questions of life and purpose and ego as they transition to the second half of their lives. 

Here’s what Rashida had to say:

Most people I talk to who are 50, just turned 50, have this thing where they’re like, who am I? There’s like this full rebirth. Who do I want to be for the next 50 years if we’re lucky? What does my back half look like? What’s actually fulfilling? What does my ego want? Do I need to fulfill my ego? Do I need to fulfill a deeper soul purpose? Like so much is coming up.

The conversation then continued with Will Arnett adding:

I think at this stage of your life, you’ve done stuff like you’ve had like this huge first couple chapters of your life and you have the work stuff and you have the adolescence and then the work stuff and then the kid stuff and then the work with kids stuff and blah, blah, blah. And you get to this point, you’re like, okay, now what?

To which Rashida responded:

Right. And also that’s all that stuff that you thought for your entire life was going to fill the gap. You’re like, wait, it doesn’t quite fill that gap. There’s still a little piece missing. And what is that piece like? And we’re privileged enough to have succeeded in a way. But I think for everybody, they’re like, wait a second, it’s just going to be this forever? Like all the firsts are gone.

It’s easy to look at celebrities and famous people and think they have it all. But, truth told, we’re all grappling with the same questions and issues.