Mid Life Celebration

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?

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.

“Be not afraid of going slowly;  be only afraid of standing still”. – Chinese Proverb

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.

Mid Life Purple Cow?  It’s ok if you don’t know what this is.

It’s ok.  But it’s a shame.  Not a big shame, but a shame nevertheless.

Better late than never, right?  So I began reading Seth Godin’s Purple Cow last week.  Finished it yesterday.

If you seek encouragement because you dream bigger than most, and you often feel “stupid” when people comment on your big dreams, this is a must read.

It will make you feel better. I guarantee it (unless you’re an alien).

If you are a Purple Cow (remarkable), most of the herd dislikes you because you’re different. Because you’re annoying; threatening, in a way.

Being remarkable is risky.  Playing it safe is risky.  In life, we get to pick one.  Don’t be a chicken.

Hot & naked?  Neither.

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.

“It is an old ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way”. — Rollo May

I’m tempted to question myself.  Why?  Because many I talk with, think I’m crazy to believe that people will want to change if the right recipe comes along.

There is a secret recipe.  Everyone knows it.  But because we ignore it, it remains a secret.

The secret is, “work hard and find your purpose”.

Most people don’t want to do either.  I certainly didn’t.  Most of my life was,  “Work hard, play hard”. That’s a catch phrase for, “Hurry up, we’re lost”.

Then I regained consciousness and started looking around.  There’s much work to be done.  The harvest is great, the workers are few.

Mid Life Fanatic.  Why  yes, yes I am.

Why wouldn’t anyone want to be a mid life fanatic?  Actually, why wouldn’t anyone want to be fanatical about life? Period.

Fanatical.  Defined as excessive enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is just another word for attitude.  Attitude is up to you.  No one else. Period.

We get one chance to have enthusiasm.  It’s the time between our birth and our death.

Ya with me?  Seriously.  Are you with me?  Carpe diem

Mid Life Self-Discipline.  We may never be perfect, but we can be better.

Discipline is remembering what you want.

First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want now.

If we don’t discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.

You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life.

PS.  Found these thoughts on Twitter, source unknown, and put them together. They were all found separately.

“As I get older I’ve learned to listen to people rather than accuse them of things”. — Po Bronson

Here’s my challenge with Po’s thought – doesn’t anybody (when listening) hear the echos of codependency?

“Oh, Uncle Joel, he sure likes his beer”, people say lovingly about a family member’s obvious addiction.

Everyone lives with it.  Everyone is privately aware of it.  Everyone acts like it’s not true. Everyone says nothing.

I sort of feel like accusing them all – of saying nothing, doing nothing.

Or maybe it’s better to let loved ones travel that path.  Then no one would be guilty of accusing anyone of anything. How cool is that?

Traveling the world, I see many of our American Military coming and going. I talk with a fair number of them. And because of this, a more present appreciation for what is “happening in the real world”.

Here’s to all of you who’ve I’ve met, and to all those I’ll never meet.  God Bless you and your Families. Godspeed.

An American Soldier, by Toby Keith.  Click here to watch it.

My Father-In-Law served in WWII and lives in Pennsylvania.  My Dad served in Japan during the Korean War, and died of a non-military disease in 2001.  I love them both.

And if you do have the time and the guts to watch it, say a prayer for our troops.

PS. And, um, it’s ok to cry.  I did.

Walking wounded at mid life?

Sleeping wounded at mid life?

Waking wounded at mid life?

Awakened wounded at mid life?

I’ve been all four. The one that works best, in my opinion, is awakened wounded.

Ever wonder which one you are?

We are all wounded.  Ever heard the phrase, “Life’s a bitch and then you die”?  Things only become cliches if they’re true.

“Are you heading home”?, I asked the women (73) in the window seat.

“No, I’m going to visit my daughter (47) who has brain cancer”.

Then she asked me the same question and I asked her, “Can you please give me a few minutes so I can comprehend what you just said”?

A routine day. A routine trip.  A routine question.

A wake up call answer.

And just the day before I was taking about “Living before you die” with another man in mid life.

It’s like someone is telling me, do it, start writing and get your book out there. Too many people are sleeping.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours”. – Henry David Thoreau

Pretty good, to a point. Sort of saying I’m not buying it completely.

It seems Thoreau’s message is a bit misleading.  We all know that life isn’t fair, and therefore, expecting the life we imagine will happen, is doomed.

What I hear is,  “Go after your dreams.  Expect and be prepared for awful things to happen. But don’t let that stop you from living an extraordinary life”.

If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans.  But don’t let that stop you.  Carpe diem, jeff

I often wonder if people, other than Baby Boomers, read Mid Life Celebration.

It also intrigues me whether this blog helps you as much as it helps the author.

GoDaddy says yes.  The daily stats continue to rise at a fast pace. A pace that is quite distracting actually.

I hadn’t planned for the type of “success” the stats indicate.  So today, I just wanted to clarify something.

Mid Life Celebration is for my son.  It’s one of life’s big choices.  Our mind, and what we do with it is one of the big four.

More later.  Carpe diem, jeff noel