Take Shelter From Midlife?
A midlife crisis is essentially that period of time when we are faced with the reality that the path we have been traveling on all our life is no longer fulfilling or motivating -we’ve come to a dead end.
The crisis is that we have invested our entire lives on this journey and now we come to find out it’s not what we want. How is that possible? Smart people. Dedicated people. Hard-working people. All of a sudden, at a crossroads, so to speak.
Because of the fairly severe nature of our infraction, we often rush into a solution – attempting to regain lost ground, lost happiness, lost opportunity. It is far better, in my opinion, to use patience and conscious effort to rethink, reprioritize and then finally to recommit to a different path.
There are a million ways to do this. The essence, however, is to follow the three simple steps – rethink, reprioritize and recommit.
A special thank you to Petrina who commented yesterday, and shared a process that helped her rethink.
Jeff,
One other “re” I would like to add to the mix is to “refocus.” Because I can guarantee you that through this process of rethinking, reprioritizing, and recommitting, you will be bombarded with things external and internal that will steer you away from your focal point. Some of them come in the form of doubt, embarrassment, “societal expectations,” and even pride. But in the miriad of things bombarding you to either react hastily or to just stay the course even though it leads the wrong way, you have to regain that focus and listen for the Whisper among the shouting.
I would highly recommend re-reading (since we are on the “re” kick) a poem most people read through school about this and then look at the what is means to you…Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” That’s the great thing about poetry, metaphors, and symbolism…it tends to mean different things to each person. But it’s worth a deep read and (yes, another “re” word) reflection.
Bob
Bob, bingo, bulls-eye!! The bombardment is a daily part of our landscape.
Love the way you think.
Mid Life is the proverbial fork-in-the-road.
Tag lines are interesting things. Too much, and they’re hard to remember. Too little and they blow away.
I promise to refocus or reflection.