"I wasted six months fretting that I was no longer important and respected.  Then it dawned on me that if you aren't respected, you don't need to be respectable."

Journey of a Lifetime - by Sylvia Farley

On my own quest I discovered that, to survive, one needs to be bloody-mindedly oneself.  Ego-integrity is the first essential.  We need a balance of a number of different dimensions of development which, for me, are life-SPICES: Social, Physical, Intellectual, Creative, Emotional and Spiritual.