Week 3 in the life of dwyle.com and some of the comments that I have received so far have been:
“very inspiring”
“It sounds like you are having a midlife crisis!”
“I like your Blog, you write how people think. But it does say a lot about your state of mind”
“I think it’s Brilliant. You are Brilliant”
That last one was real. So a mixed bag. These got me thinking though. Am I having a midlife crisis, at the ripe old age of 34?.
What is the definition of a Midlife Crisis?
I know most people would freak out at the thought of such a thing but I’m not like most people. I decided to get the official (Wikipedia) version of what a Midlife crisis actually is.
Midlife crisis is a term coined in 1965 by Elliott Jaques stating a time where adults come to realize their own mortality and how much time is left in their life. A midlife crisis is experienced by many people during the midlife transition when they realize that life may be more than halfway over.
Sometimes, a crisis can be triggered by transitions experienced in these years, such as andropause or menopause, the death of parents or other causes of grief, unemployment or underemployment, realizing that a job or career is hated but not knowing how else to earn an equivalent living, or children leaving home.
People may reassess their achievements in terms of their dreams. The result may be a desire to make significant changes in core aspects of day-to-day life or situation, such as in career, work-life balance, marriage, romantic relationships, large expenditures, or physical appearance.
Having a mid-life crisis doesn’t seem a bad thing
Call me a “Half glass full” kind of guy but do you look at that and see any negatives? (Well the Mrs might disagree slightly on the “romantic relationships” bit!).
We seem to be doing everything else a lot sooner these days, so surely it’s evolution that we do this earlier in our lives. Isn’t it?
Surely, if we can all recognise that we need to make changes in our lives sooner, we can live happier more fulfilling and not dread the morning commute every day.
Causes of a Midlife crisis?
I read a fabulous quote this week in ‘The Fire Starter Sessions’ by Danielle LaPorte.
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”
- Albert Schweitzer
We are the proverbial Calor gas cannister and our increasingly busy lives mean that we are using our reserves; far quicker than we ever used to. (I also think that we can connect to others feeling the same a lot easier these days also but that’s a different story.)
Needless to say, we are ‘running low on gas’ quicker than we ever used to and our fire goes out. Its a well documented fact that people are ten times more likely to suffer from depression now than in 1945
The question remains:
Who and where are those other human beings that can rekindle your inner spirit?
