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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

“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.

…Different:

If you enjoy music and laughter (and who doesn’t?) these two minutes might work for you, click here.

Live, laugh, learn, teach, love, leave a legacy of courage and hope.

Carpe diem, jeff noel

PS.  Thanks Craig for sharing this.

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

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

“What’s it gonna take to move from midlife-complacency to midlife-commitment”?

There are curious people who actually ask me, “What’s your secret to get and stay motivated”?

I usually mumble something that sounds like a good answer, but actually I’m thinking, “If I have to explain it to you, you won’t understand”.

Listen, you got to mid life.  That in itself is pretty remarkable.  You have the answers.  You do.  Trust me, you do.

But maybe you haven’t yet found the courage to admit it.

When are you going to start?  If not today, when?  Seriously, when? Carpe diem, jeff noel

This jeff noel You Tube video was the first take and slightly longer (40 sec) version:

People need people to be role models. Are you brave enough and tough enough to be that type of person?

“When you find a purpose bigger than yourself.  When you you finally realize you’re not going to live forever, well, you have the power to change the world”.  – jeff noel    PS. Carpe diem

More is better, right?

I’m pretty much an over-achiever.  Hard to become a 25-year Disney Cast Member and not have excellence rub off on you.

What has rubbed off on us is what we carry into mid-life.  This is why it’s a crisis. Along the way, we weren’t paying attention to common sense.

Midlife provides a second look at common sense.  Midlife does not provide an easy choice. But it does provide one.

Carpe diem, jeff noel

Only difference is that it’s much more subtle in our brains.

The ability to awaken our subconscious minds, which are like the roaring water.

Yet Niagara Falls is only visible to us when we get close to it.  Otherwise, it’s like it doesn’t exist.

There are thoughts, dreams, ideas, goals that are locked up in our subconscious.

If only we’d have the courage to practice recalling them, and then, just maybe, we could do something about them.

Before we die.

Carpe diem, jeff noel

PS. A visual, in case you need it: