1. La
Divina
Commedia
(3)
Creating
the
life
and
career
you
love
in
the
Second
Half
of
Life
By
Peter
de
Kuster
with
Falco
Valkenburg
Identifying
the
Hell
of
Closed
Doors
Ghiberti’s
Doors
There
is
nothing
more
hellish
than
the
unknown

2.
Think
back
to
the
times
you
were
most
scared
while
watching
a
movie.
Bet
it
were
moments
when
someone
up
the
screen
was
about
to
open
a
closed
door,
or
step
into
a
darkened
tunnel,
or
turn
a
corner.
Or
entered
hell
like
Dante.
Ironically,
the
anticipation
of
the
horrors
that
could
suddenly
appear
were
always
far
more
frightening
than
whatever
actually
did
show
up.
Stories
as
Hannibal
Lecter
which
plays
in
Florence
are
so
successfull
because
they
spend
more
time
letting
us
dream
up
our
own
fears
from
what
remains
unknown
and
unseen,
rather
than
actually
showing
us
something.
Right
now
the
hell
of
obstacles
to
you
creating
a
life
and
work
you
love
are
at
their
most
daunting
because
they’re
still
nameless
and
shapeless.
They’re
like
the
closed
doors
to
Paradise
of
Ghiberti,
blocking
your
path
to
paradise,
hiding
innumerable
imagined
traps
and
errors.
We’ve
been
there.
We
know
what
that’s
like.
When
obstacles
are
abstract
it’s
easy
to
start
playing
out
worstcase
scenarios
in
your
head.
As
a
result,
general,
free-­‐form
fears
and
problems
seem
insurmountable.
Writers
like
Dante,
artists
like
Ghiberti
have
all
sorts
of
names
for
this
uncomfortable
place.
Some
call
it
‘the
descent
into
hell’,
others
‘closed
doors’.
They
all
tell
the
same
story:
identify
all
the
barriers
between
you
and
the
life
of
your
dreams.
And
you
can
enter
paradise
or
heaven.

4. The
Twelve
Most
Common
Closed
Doors
The
specifics
of
the
obstacles
you
face
will
be
unique
because
you
and
the
life
of
your
dreams
are
unique.
We
have
found
however
that
there
twelve
general
obstacles
for
people
who
want
to
create
a
life
and
work
they
love
in
the
second
half
of
life:
age,
money,
duration,
consent,
location,
physical
location,
education,
timing,
esteem,
fear
of
failure,
fear
of
success
and
fatalism.

5. 1. Age.
In
our
experience,
this
is
the
most
common
barrier
for
the
50+
Most
often,
people
believe
they’re
too
old
to
pursue
the
life
of
their
dreams.
2. Money.
A
very
close
second
in
frequency
is
the
worry
that
either
you
don’t
have
sufficient
financial
reserves
to
launch
a
Divina
Commedia
or
that
pursuing
your
dream
life
and
job
won’t
offer
enough
of
an
income
to
keep
you
and
your
loved
ones
afloat.
3. Duration.
Divina
Commedia’s
often
consist
of
dramatic
journeys
requiring
a
look
in
the
abyss
of
hell
before
to
move
forward
to
heaven.
As
a
result,
you
might
be
concerned
by
the
amount
of
time
you
think
it
will
take
to
succeed
in
your
new
life.
4. Consent.
No
man
or
woman
is
an
island.
Regardless
of
age,
gender
or
marital
status,
you
may
find
you
need
the
consent
or
perhaps
even

6. outright
support,
of
someone
else
to
pursue
your
dream.
It’s
common
to
fear
consent
will
be
withheld
or
support
won’t
be
forthcoming.
5. Location.
Despite
all
the
advances
in
technologie
and
all
the
moves
toward
a
global
economy,
people
often
believe
they’re
simply
not
living
in
the
right
location
to
live
the
life
of
their
dreams.
6. Physical
condition.
You
can’t
do
anything
if
you
try
hard
enough.
Some
dreams
are
contingent
on
your
phsyical
condition.
So
work
on
this.
7. Education.
Just
as
physical
condition
may
be
requirement
for
some
dreams,
so
a
specific
education
may
be
a
sine
qua
non
to
succeed
at
certain
Divina
Commedia’s.
8. Timing.
It’s
very
common
to
feel
the
timing
just
isn’t
right
to
launch
a
Divina
Commedia.
Some
explain
they
need
to
wait
until
their
lives
or
circumstances
have
changed
in
some
way.

7.
9. Esteem.
It
is
incredible
how
much
power
over
our
lives
we
unconsciously
give
to
other
people.
Even
the
most
inwardly
secure
and
self
–
possessed
individual
often
feels
a
conscious
or
subconscious
need
to
win
the
approvement
of
someone
else.
We
all
worry
far
more
about
what
others
think
of
us
than
we
often
care
to
admit.
That’s
why
esteem
is
often
an
obstacle
to
changing
your
life.
10.Fear
of
failure.
A
lack
of
self
–
esteem
is
an
obvious
barrier
to
creating
a
life
and
work
you
love
in
the
second
half
of
your
life.
Ofcourse
it’s
rarely
framed
that
way
to
others.
Instead
it’s
presented
as
the
realization
they
simply
don’t
possess
the
required
elements
it
takes
to
pursue
their
dreams.
Why
put
myself
through
the
hell
of
failure?
11.
Fear
of
success.
Ironically,
many
of
the
people
whose
fear
of
failure
is
an
obstacle
to
their
launching
a
Divina
Commedia
also
have
a
fear
of
success
that
blocks
their
path
to
happiness.
They’ll
say,
even
if
by
chance
they
achieve
their
dream,
it
won’t
last
long.
It
will
be
taken
away
from
them.
In
their
eyes,
every
success
has
to
eventually
become
a
failure.
And
achieving
a
goal,
only
to
lose
it
later
would,
they
feel,
be
worse
than
never
having
achieved
it
at
all.
So,
they
rationalize,
it’s
better
to
not
even
go
after
the
life
of
their
dreams.
12.
Fatalism.
Finally,
there
are
people
whose
pessimistic
view
of
themselves
or
the
world
is
an
obstacle
to
creating
a
life
and
work
they
love.
They
don’t
feel
entitled
to
live
the
life
of
their
dreams.
They’re
fatalists;
they

8. believe
that
they’ve
been
dealt
a
hand
they
can’t
change.
Destiny
is
fixed,
in
their
eyes,
and
they
aren’t
going
to
have
any
more
than
they
currently
have
or
be
any
happier
than
they
are
right
now.
Of
course,
they
thing
they
could
get
more
miserable.
Such
people
often
feel
trying
to
create
the
life
they
dream
of
will
make
them
feel
even
worse.
How
do
we
open
these
doors?