Repacking Your Bags

Career development counselor Leider (Life Skills) and freelance writer Shapiro here contend that many ``mid-life inventurers'' (those undergoing a mid-life crisis) lose their sense of what they want from their personal and professional lives. This simplistic guide is intended to help readers redefine their own version of the ``good life'' and offers a formula to achieve it. The authors advise readers to discard excess ``baggage'' such as possessions, responsibilities and relationships in order to reintegrate ``work, love, place, and purpose.'' Citing thinkers from Alfred Adler to Dante and Norman Cousins, they couch their suggestions in metaphorical, slogan-like terms and use sometimes arbitrary-sounding ``Postcard exercises'' to be exchanged with a ``Dialogue Partner.'' Having ``fully unpacked your relationship bags'' and chosen only things ``you can't live without,'' you are presumably ready to select a new purpose, way of life and environment. 30,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Jan.)