enlarge Lloyd Ferriss photo/For the Maine Sunday Telegram

Brenda Cadman, a former social worker, is employed at Hurley Travel Experts in Portland. She lost her previous job when her employer ceased operations, and the resulting change let her have more fun.

enlarge Photo courtesy Crystal Doodo

Crystal Doodo one day asked herself the last time she had done something just for herself. So she, also pictured on the cover, started hiking the Appalachian Trail from north to south.

CREATING CHANGE

Where do you find the courage to change? Suzanne Zoglio, Ph.D. and author of the book "Create A Life That Tickles Your Soul," makes these six suggestions.

DREAM IN TECHNICOLOR. The more specific your dream, the more motivated you'll become. Picture it, write it, post it, share it. All action begins in the mind. Envision yourself in the changed state.

GAIN PERSPECTIVE. remember all the challenges you've handled in the past and this one won't be quite so scary.

CHUNK THE CHANGE. Don't quit your day job, but do one thing in the direction of your dreams every day. Research, plan, interview, read, take one step. Then just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

GET SUPPORT. A friend, mentor, sib, or other. Have someone who believes in you cheering you on when the going gets tough! And talk nice to yourself!

HOLD OUT YOUR OWN CARROT! List, post, reflect on the emotional reward if you succeed. How will you feel if you accomplish the change?

PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE SETBACKS. If you know what you'll do in event of a setback, you'll move forward into unknown territory much more courageously. Plan B may never be used, but it's a secret weapon. View Suzanne Zoglio's Web site at www.zoglio.com.

As she neared 60, Crystal Doodo felt melancholy. Not that her life was dull. She'd raised three children. She'd been a laborer, a cook and – more than anything else – a waitress.

"I had no concept of what it was to play," she said. "I worked Christmas and other holidays because that's where the money is. I liked it, but I started to think, when was the last time I did anything for myself?"

It was spring 2004 and, still working her longtime job in a Brunswick restaurant, Doodo imagined her path to fun.

She would hike the Appalachian Trail.

At seemed like a crazy idea at first. She wasn't a hiker. Her savings were small. She didn't have the $800 to spend on an A-to-Z hiking outfit and pack.

But she did like to walk and, when she told restaurant customers about her new idea, good things started to happen.

A woman customer gave her a sleeping bag and a fine pair of hiking boots her son had outgrown. Doodo bought a small weekend pack. In July 2004 a friend drove her north to Mount Katahdin for the start of her north to south adventure.

Weeks later, writing in her trail journal about her decision to strike out in a new direction, Doodo summed it up in a sentence.

"I was burned out," she wrote, "on my dreary little life."

For too many boomers, dreary life is a familiar condition. It happens from working the same job year after year, from corporate changes that make a once-fun employment miserable or from downsizing that leaves a worker jobless.

The usual response is anger or depression. But some use burnout or job loss to catapult them into a more fulfilling life. For these fortunate people, it's the beginning of a mid-life dream come true.

But good transitions don't happen by accident.

According to Kirk Wilkinson, author of "The Happiness Factor: How to be Happy No Matter What," approach is everything.

He suggests writing a mission statement about what you'd like to accomplish in your life. Or imagining you have just 18 months to live.

"How," he asks, "would you spend those 18 months?"

Other Wilkinson ideas? Put structure in your life by taking a class or lessons in something that interests you. Become a mentor to someone who has hit hard times. "When you help someone in their life," he says, "you often get a new perspective on yours."

For Crystal Doodo, walking the Appalachian Trail turned out to be everything she imagined – and more. She went up and down Mount Katahdin, crossed the 100-mile wilderness, and walked through eight states before cold weather forced her off the trail in Pennsylvania. Reluctant to return to Maine, she went to Texas to work for an insurance company.

In April she intends to finish the Appalachian Trail by hiking from Pennsylvania to Springer Mountain in Georgia.

After that? Probably a road trip to Alaska with her Maine boyfriend.

"You can't just think about change and talk about it," she said. "It's like weaving a rug. You have to start because the rug won't build itself."

In South Portland, Brenda Cadman faced a different challenge when her job as a Portland YWCA social worker ended about four years ago. It had nothing to do with her excellent job performance.

The Portland YWCA hit hard financial times, then closed for good.

"For the first time in my life," she said, "I was unemployed."

Cadman could have launched a next-day job search that would – in all likelihood – have led to a social work supervisory position.

She holds a master's degree in social work from the University of New England. She is a licensed clinical social worker, substance abuse counselor and supervisor. Her employment history includes work for Maine agencies ranging from Day One to Sweetser. But no job applications went out in the morning mail.

"In social work," she said, "every crisis is viewed as an opportunity. I realized I...