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The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life's Radical Second Half


For updates, links to all book-referenced downloads, and individual and group opportunities to engage together in this midlife exploratory journey, fill out the form below and join us!

*You'll also receive the free inspirational newsletter, Unhumping Hump Day, the weekly Wednesday JOLT Note,
to support every day as your BEST day.

The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces

to Launch Life's Radical Second Half


What has been called “a perfectly timed tool for reevaluation brought on by 'The Great Resignation'” (Midwest Book Review), The Back Forty: 7 Essential Embraces to Launch Life’s Radical Second Half  arrived on Amazon in softcover and ebook form on February 2, 2022. To those engaged in the “Big Quit”, the future gets brighter for you on 2/2/22.
See the inspiring launch day videos of difference-makers here.


In a continued pandemic-laced era when many aspects of personal and professional life are all up for grabs, grabbing a copy of The Back Forty might be the best insurance for a more joyful and self-expressed experience ahead.


In this period of deep and wholesale life/work introspection and ramping up for greater self-expression, The Back Forty is both timely and intimately helpful, serving as a trustworthy guide for a powerful midlife makeover. Its spirited message of rejuvenation and inspiration transforms any prevailing personal resignation into momentum toward a purposeful next phase of life: not only guaranteed, but perfectly timed by your own design.


Whether it’s discovering the purpose for the remainder of your work life or your personal reFirement to replace any ideas of retirement, The Back Forty points the way to your second half/best half.

Praise for The Back Forty

“In The Back Forty, Darrell Gurney has laid down an effective and inspiring roadmap for getting deep and insightful with oneself at the midpoint—or any point—of life. Disassembling, recontextualizing and causing one's purposeful life going forward, guided by these seven Embraces, ensures anyone a future of possibilities that weren't going to ‘happen anyway.’ This is indeed radical thinking.”

Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers50’s only two-time winner of #1 Leadership Thinker in the World,
the World’s #1 Executive Coach and Top Ten Business Thinker

The Back Forty is a testament to the unstoppable spirit in each of us. Darrell Gurney intimately shares his own midlife quest for purpose, stepping beyond fear and doubt to pave the way for himself and each of us to have our second half of life be the best half. This is required reading if you want the next phase of your life to be the best part ever.”

Cynthia Kersey, best-selling author of Unstoppable and founder of
The Unstoppable Foundation

The Back Forty is a profound and engaging inquiry into what it takes to expand when society is betting you'll contract. For anyone seeking to clear their path of self-imposed obstacles, habits, behaviors and attitudes so they can build a rich and fulfilling second half of life, The Back Forty serves as a bible of empowerment.”

Sally Helgesen, author of How Women Rise, The Web of Inclusion, and The Female Advantage

“Yes, your first half of life was simply research and development. This outlines what to do with the second half. Inspiring wisdom for any age, don’t enter or leave midlife without The Back Forty.”

Chip Conley, New York Times best-selling author of Wisdom @ Work and founder of Modern Elder Academy

“Ever run into someone you felt like hitting when you turned forty and they said, 'The best is yet to come'? Well, if they ducked when you took a swipe at them and then gave you a copy of The Back Forty, you’d not only thank them but you'd apologize profusely for taking the swing.”

Mark Goulston, M.D., founding member Newsweek Expert Forum and author of
Just Listen, the top book in the
world on listening

“Through his spiritual daring, Gurney sheds light upon the vital subject of discovering one’s inner wholeness at any age and stage on life’s journey. He moves his readers into a revolution in consciousness: loving ourselves for who we are, for the innate capacities of the heart and soul.”

Michael Bernard Beckwith, best-selling author of Life Visioning  and Spiritual Liberation  and founder/spiritual director of The Agape International Spiritual Center

The Back Forty is an honest, authentic take on how the most challenging moments lead to powerful truths. It provides an opportunity to examine the past like a scientist and experiment with creating mindsets which will set you up for a joyful present and enriching future. As Darrell points out: ‘The only start that matters is the one you make now.’ So true.”

Barbara Waxman, MS, MPA, PCC, coach, gerontologist, speaker, author of Middlescence Manifesto: Igniting the Passion of Midlife

“Darrell Gurney tilled the soil of his personal experience and harvested an inspiring process for embracing challenges and living life to the fullest. In The Back Forty, Gurney offers a crucial counter to the prevailing pessimism about midlife and shows his readers the best is yet to come!”

Margit Cox Henderson, PhD, author of Optimistic Aging: from Midlife to the
Good Life, an Action Plan

For updates, links to all book-referenced downloads, and individual and group opportunities to engage together in this midlife exploratory journey fill out the form below and join us!

*You'll also receive the free inspirational newsletter, Unhumping Hump Day, the weekly Wednesday JOLT Note,
to support every day as your BEST day.

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