Mid Life Celebration

Midlife Fork In The Road?

Isn’t that what leads us to the proverbial midlife crisis?

Ambition.  Can’t live with it.  Can’t live without it.

Or can we?  Live without it, I mean.

And maybe not live without it, but alter the course of our ambition.

I mean, alter it from selfish to selfless.

And by selfish, I don’t mean to say it’s wrong to be professionally ambitious.

And by selfless, I don’t mean we should sell all our belongs and live with just the shirt on our back.

But there is this rare opportunity, at it’s peak in mid life, that we can really get serious about where we currently are and where we ultimately want to end up.

Most likely, at midlife, these are two diametrically opposed paths.

Your Clock Is Ticking

“Aspire to inspire, before you expire.”   — unknown

Before we know it, our time will be through. No second chances. No do overs.

If tomorrow never comes, will you be ok with that?

Do You Have The Guts To Change Direction?

When do we pursue change?

When do we resist change?

Mostly, in our humanness, we resist it. We are basically weak, fearful creatures.  And yet we know, instinctively, that change is the only constant.

If you want midlife peace, you must be willing to earn it. Earning it requires changing.

To read, “Changing Direction In Life”, by Dr Sheri Rosenthal, click here.

There is peace in our midlife journey, and peace in our realization that midlife change is good, even if it scares us to death.

Thank you for visiting Mid Life Celebration. I know most of you are insanely busy. How? Because I’m one of you. It’s also easy to predict that most of you will not have time to click on this video, especially if you’re reading from a handheld device.

So this is for the others. The few. The ones who know full well that life is hard and that carving out time has to be some one’s responsibility.

Did you watch the sunset last night? Or the sunrise this morning?

Time marches on. This is a beautiful story. Just like last night’s sunset. But you really have no idea do you?

Lane 8, Impossible?

“When everybody tells you that you are being idealistic or impractical, consider the possibility that everybody could be wrong about what is right for you.” — Gilbert Kaplan

Generation Jones, No Cover

Just when you think you know it all, you are offered some new piece of information that nearly embarrasses you.

That’s what happened a few days ago when a Mid Life Celebration blog post comment shared some background data and a link to Generation Jones.

Generation Jones is not a band at Ladies Night, Generation Jones is somewhere between Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers, like born between 1954 – 1965.

Click here to view, if you have any interest, or skepticism.

Not sure I’m buying it, even if it’s “two-for one” night.

Super Hero?

Men of a certain age is the target audience for Mid Life Celebration. Baby Boomer men, and Gen X men over 40 years old.

All are welcome, of course.  Yesterday’s Mid Life Celebration Guest Blogger, Lorie Sheffer, recommended “Men of a Certain Age” on TNT, tonight (Monday’s) at 10PM.

Click here to view Men of a Certain Age website. Viewing it will give you a quick idea whether or not you want to check it out.  I’ll have to record it because 9:30PM is “lights out”.

Took a quick look yesterday.  Really liked what I saw.

If you’ve seen it, and feel like it, share a quick comment about the show. Happy Monday.

Impossible Is Nothing

Click here to read the six steps from an Everyday Health article.

Or, simply read my list that says the same thing, just differently:

1. Make your goal impossible
2. Start small, I mean seriously small
3. Plan on it taking the rest of your life
4. Do it for someone else, someone really (significantly) important
5. Plan for set backs and mis-steps
6. Have fun and reward yourself occasionally
7. (Bonus step) Search, and find, your indomitable will along way

Ready, set, go!

Mid Life Dreams.  We all have them. We all like them.  We all want them to come true.

This is probably where we take a wrong turn. Somewhere. Somehow. It happens.

But we are completely unaware.  For a long time. A really long time. Maybe a couple decades.

We somehow miss the turn, get lost, and then end up at the proverbial midlife crisis.

It’s a ton of work to overcome decades of status quo.

It’s a ton of work to start a business. It’s a ton of work to get healthy and stay healthy. It’s a ton of work to save enough for retirement. It’s a ton of work to have a peaceful and contented spirit.

Everything is a ton of work.

It’s very similar to the early pioneers. This is the follow up video to the one from a few weeks ago. It was the burning sunset that prompted me to stop.

Unscripted and one-take, the way You Tube videos are traditionally done.

Spirit

Midlife heartbreak or midlife opportunity.  Pretty simple.  Two choices.  You get to pick one.

If you and your spouse (and yes, want to acknowledge some readers will not be parents), worked hard all your life and played by the rules, and you gave birth to a child without eyes and never able to walk, which would you pick?

Mid Life heartache or mid life opportunity?

Well, there was a Family that had to make this choice.  They were featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as well as numerous other media pieces, including a heartwarming You Tube Video feature, about 6 minutes long, available at the end of this post.

One of my “secrets” to unspeakable  joy is the daily effort to read, listen, watch, experience, think, do and reflect on the countless blessings that surround my ordinary life.

You have all these blessings too.  But in order to feel the Peace and Contentment that are the fruit of these blessings, you must become fully aware.

You must become willing to invest time everyday.  Even if it’s only six minutes. Will today be another day to postpone your new beginning?

If it’s not, click here.

No Easy Answer

Two simple choices:

1. Ease up and just deal with whatever comes your way
2. Proactively, relentlessly pursue a cure

They both have pros and cons.

Welcome to life – the real world.

Two Simple Choices. Pick One.

I Can Only Imagine

Here are the top five finalists, in no particular order:

1. I Feel Good – James Brown
2. Fruitcakes – Jimmy Buffett
3. Netherlands – Dan Fogelberg
4. Lifesong – Casting Crowns
5. I Can Only Imagine – Mercy Me

This was way harder than I thought.  Anyone else struggle?

Oh, I almost forgot, you really don’t have time for this nonsense. I get it. Everyone is crazy busy.

January was supposed to be simple – Simplicity.  What the heck happened to simplicity?

I can only imagine.

Simplicity is Complicated

Simplicity is an elusive goal sometimes.

Ok, simplicity is elusive most of the time.

But so are a lot of things that are important.  Should that stop us from our pursuit?

There is only one, resounding answer to this question.

And maybe by tomorrow I’ll have my movie soundtrack song(s) to share with the world.  This was a fun, and frustrating, exercise.

And anything but simple.

Should have seen it coming.

Pick One

What song did you pick?

Two days ago, I asked, “If your life were made into a movie, what would be the featured song?”

Okay, so I have a confession.  This question is too difficult to answer without considerable thought.

I mean, it will be the song featured on your movie’s soundtrack, right?

My other challenge?  I’m sort of a music connoisseur and have way too much to choose from.  Most of us are like that – the love of music.

Think about it and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Chicago Tribune Building

Ever heard someone say what you say, but in a different way?

How’d it feel?

Some might feel threatened, because they thought their thoughts were original.

Some rejoice because it validates their thinking and belief system.

For me, it’s the latter.

Click here to go to Brian K. Rice, and his LeadershipConnextions blog. Brian quotes some of Gail Sheehy’s thoughts on Mid Life.

The purpose here today is simple – provide you with links, offering the same thing using different words.

PS. Tomorrow, we’ll revisit yesterday’s question.