Like hardly ever, right?

What do you do?

At the very least, we can pause in our midlife rush, and count what really counts.

Shouldn’t take too long.

What really matters is a short list.

Hard To Pick Just One

First thing on the list today, inspired by the Third Day song I’m currently listening to:

1. THANK YOU Mid Life Celebration readers for visiting

It’s simply joyful to know that so many people visit each day. Your visits humble me, inspire me.

Second thing on the list: If a movie was made of your life, what song would be featured?

If it’s easier, what top two or three songs? Hard to pick just one.

Don't Bother Me Kid

Okay, my wife says I march to the beat of a different drummer. And after 50 years, I’m finally okay with that. It’s who I am – who I want to be.

Are ya with me?  Are you cool with who you are? With the way people judge perceive you?

No, really, are you?  Most people are, right? Because most people are pretty “normal” (whatever that means).

But if you’ve ever felt sort of out on the edge, the fringe so to speak, it’s a fairly lonely place to be. And it takes guts to be out there.

Had to tell you all of that to tell you this: “You didn’t give enough consideration to yesterday’s challenge to have a convincing answer today.”

How do I know? Because I live on the fringes, an outsider. Outsiders know. Wish it was explainable.

So, may I ask you, again, to take yesterday’s challenge more seriously today?

You know what, don’t even worry about. It’s far too much to ask of an adult, in mid life, to have an immediate, and convincing answer to the most basic of childhood questions.

Just tell those precious young minds to run along, and not to bother you.

• Just do it
• Carpe diem
• Life is short, play hard

Life can change in an instant.  This One-Take-You Tube video I shot the other day while leaving from my podiatrist illustrates this perfectly.

Life is short, play hard. Carpe diem. Just do it.

And expect Joy to follow.

Nothing Under Mid Life

Are you getting this? Mid Life Crisis versus Mid Life Celebration.

These are simply mid life words, but the difference between the two sets of words is as profound as the difference here:

• Hate and Love
• War and Peace
• Terrorist and Missionary
• Dishonest and Honest
• Criminal and Saint
• Death and Life
• Apathy and Passion
• Crisis and Celebration

Have I told you lately how much joy it brings to know there are others out there who benefit as much from Mid Life Celebration as I do?

Three days away from New Year’s Eve. Got big plans for 2010?

1. Bear Hug
2. One, two, three
3. Twistee Treat Day
4. Food For Families
5. Dinner Prayer
6. You’ll never get in trouble for being honest
7. If you lined up all the boys in the world….

What simple, repeatable traditions do is ingrain key messages.  Simple messages.  Life altering messages.

While we are insanely busy, we all have one life to live. We ought to be insanely thankful for that, and then set out to make the most of it.

PS.  If you regularly follow Mid Life Celebration, you already know there’s a really strong chance each tradition will be explained in future posts, maybe as soon as tomorrow.  And if f you’re new here, welcome.

“We learn as much from sorrow as from joy, as much from illness as from health, from handicap as from avantage – and indeed perhaps more”. — Pearl S. Buck

Maybe.  Maybe not.  What do you think?  Many mid life adults are too busy to even contemplate this kind of thinking.  I know full well the medicinal affects of a busy schedule. It can be used as a shield to protect us from painful truths.

“In youth we learn; in age we understand”. — Marie von Ebner Eschenbach

Mid Life learning?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them”. — Albert Einstein

Listen, everyone recognizes Einstein as a genius.  We ought to seriously consider his insight here.

And I think Mid Life adults have the most potential to embrace this and make creative choices, and take creative action, to reverse the mid life crisis and let it morph into a mid life celebration.  Ya with me?

Psssst.  Shhhhhh.  (whispering) Here’s a little secret between you and me.  Most mid life adults will miss virtually every opportunity to hear messages just like this one.  And their mid life crisis never gets to be their mid life celebration.  Bummer.

I just wrote a blog post at jeff noel.com about this very subject.  About wondering if now is the right time, if the current approach is the right approach.

This type of potential self-doubt and potential fear, can sabatoge us from breaking through to something we can be great at.  And something we should be great at.  It’s just that we are late bloomers and are playing catch up.

This time delay – from creating a compelling vision - to it actually materializing, takes way longer than most people can comprehend.  This is why people give up and stop,

So, be not afraid of going slow.   Be afraid of stopping.

Interesting.  Why?  Because Thoreau died in 1862, at 44.  Little did he know that all these years later, money can buy health, to a certain extent.  But that’s not the reason this Thoreau quote is important.

It’s important because, in my opinion, health can buy wealth.  My wife’s Grammy, who lived to be 93, would always say, “Health is wealth”.

Grammy died in my arms in 1989.  We had traveled to Allentown, Pennsylvania to visit Family and I was attending our best man’s wedding.

Grammy, in her wisdom, knew firsthand that as we age, we are at the mercy of our bodies.  Our body – the greatest machine ever devised.  Don’t forget to rotate your tires and change the oil at regular intervals.

What’s waiting for you there today is an article – “Staying Active At Any Age”!

Click here to be magically transported to Lane 8.

PS.  Lane 8 is one of the five daily blogs I write and manage.

And a time for mid life, which happens in it’s own unique way for virtually everyone.  For some, like me, it can easily last a decade.  For others, perhaps it comes and goes over a weekend.

The essence of a mid life crisis is that it’s a time for reflection, and asking:

• “How did I get to this point in my life”?
• “Is this where I thought I wanted to be”?
• “What is the purpose of my life”?
• “Is there anything I need to change”?
• “Can I change it, and is it even worth it”?

Life is hard.  There is no manual telling us exactly what to do.  There are so many unpredictable things that change, destroy or inspire our plans.  It’s up to each of us to choose wisely.

Wow. Then what does it mean, “If your goal isn’t impossible, you’re not reaching high enough”?

Simply this:  You can set the bar low and reach a goal, and then wonder if you could have done better, eventually living with a certain degree of regret for not trying harder.

Or, you can set the bar impossibly high, give it your absolute best, fail, yet live with the satisfaction and peace that you left nothing on the table.

There are no guarantees in life.  But you already knew that, right?

Ain’t it the truth? Most of it is our own fault though. It is for me anyway.

Always trying to do better.  Always trying to please others.  Never satisfied with the status quo. Over-achiever. Workaholic. Can’t say no.  The list goes on and on.

Here’s another truth, that no one wants to admit. We control our choices.  Not the outcomes, but our choices.

While the outcomes are in the hands of a power we can’t begin to imagine, our choices are not.  Our choices are ours.

You’d think we would have this figured out by mid life.  Why is this so difficult to remember?

Hot and bothered maybe, but not hot and naked.  There’s a temptation to use sexual innuendos to sell things.

It’s pervasive.  So much so that this blog post title actually caused a reaction that was opposite of it’s purpose.

My purpose is simply to vent a little about how passively lives are lived.  And it almost feels, to me, like people have given up the will to work hard.

Hard work.  It’s the only way, at any age.

While the title was read with the wrong purpose, it was written with the right intent.

If you have the will but are finding the way difficult, Mid Life Celebration’s intent is to reach as many people fitting this description as possible.