Finland Hotel TV

Last August, I spent a week in Finland and never turned the TV on until 2:00AM, an hour before I left.  It’s like every time I travel. I just never watch TV.

But I sure do put some milage on the Internet.  And that’s how I found this surprisingly insightful midlife broadcast.

ABC News did a feature with Nancy Anderson, author of Work With Passion In Midlife and Beyond.

How do you know if you have passion?  If you clicked the link, you probably have passion, and a desire to learn something.

Are You Ready For Today?

Lists. Top ten lists.  Mid life.  Midlife lists. Midlife top ten lists.

Mind, Body, Spirit, Money.

Life’s Big Four.  Life’s four big decision areas.

All day long we make decisions around these four very simple concepts of mind, body, spirit and money. Mostly unaware.

Having answers to critical questions empowers us with a peace that is unknown to people still searching.

What they are searching for and why they pass by the obvious, is understandable and it is also sad. Humans are conditioned to complicate life. Complicated does not get us closer to peace.

Only discernment, organization and finally, determination to be focused and disciplined.

I know well. It’s taken me 50 years to figure it out.  Ok, I’m slow. But also determined.

There is hope for you and your dreams. If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times – there is no shortcut.

Simplicity

Happy New Year’s Eve, the biggest drinking day of the year, in the entire world.

What will your New Year’s (or whatever date you use) Resolution be for 2010?

How did you do with the one(s) you made in 2009?

If you are curious enough or smart enough to pay attention, you can learn a lot from what I share. But like anything where excellence is a goal, the focus has to be constant.

Not everyone can keep up. That’s just the law of nature. There’s only a certain type that has that focus and discipline. What type are you?

Looking back to my 2009 resolution to start an Internet-based business, here are some numbers, mostly for posterity (and certainly not to boast):

• 20 – 2008 Mid Life Celebration blog posts
• 312 – 2009 Mid Life Celebration blog posts

Humongous difference, eh?

Why? Because of:

1. Passion
2. Purpose
3. Focus
4. Discipline
5. Resolve

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?

A Word Is Worth A Thousand Pictures

Do you have words that fill you with Joy?  Words that inspire you? Words that instantly create positive images in your mind?

Four favorites are in the Mid Life Celebration blog post title here – wisdom, confidence, courage, joy.

Do those do anything for you?  How about these:

• Faith, Hope, Love
• Peace, Harmony, Balance
• Creativity, Innovation, Change
• Laughter, Humor, Bliss
• Hunger, Desire, Passion
• Determination, Tenacity
• Vision, Mission, Brand
• Social Media, Blogs, Facebook
• Mind, Body, Spirit, Money

Words. So many good ones. So much meaning.

Mid Life Crisis and Mid Life Celebration. Ya with me?

Looks good on paper.  Yet, I know so many mid life professionals who are stuck in a career or job that no longer (or never did) feeds their passion.

In many ways, for a variety of reasons, I’ve been there myself.  It is not pleasant. But we have mortgages, bills to pay, mouths to feed, etc.  So we do it.  Day in, day out.

This is one of the big causes of a mid life crisis, along with others like illness, disease, divorce, empty nest syndrome, death, bankruptcy, infidelity.

This week will likely focus on career joy. And the best way to get it is to have a job where you get to do more than you have to do. Ya with me?

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage”.   — Anais Nin

Courage.  Vision.  Passion.  Commitment.  Patience.  Hope.  Faith. And, ultimately, Love.

These are key mid-life crisis values.

But hey, who am I to tell anyone what to value.  It’s your choice. 

All I challenge you to do is make one. 

Carpe diem, jeff noel 

Yesterday I heard one of our school’s middle-aged, elementary school teachers, with 35 years teaching experience, soliciting our parental feedback to make next year’s annual elementary, overnight camping trip more successful.

And in the process, she revealed two concepts I had to write down, because I thought they were profound. Now I’m sharing them with you.

First, she talked about the “Scared Privilege” it is to be a school teacher. And you could really feel her passion and sincerity.

It made me wonder what some of my sacred privileges are. Immediately, I had a decent list. Here are a few:

Being alive at Mid Life.

Being the parent of a student.

Being married.

Having good health and a roof over my head.

You know what it made me think?

It made me think. “Virtually everything we have is a sacred privilege”.

Secondly, she talked about her simple process for using any advice we give.

“Tweak it or toss it“!

What she meant was if something isn’t working too well, tweak it. If it doesn’t make it better, toss it.

It made me wonder how long I hold onto something that doesn’t work, without even trying to tweak it.

So today, I promise to relish my scared privileges and tweak the way I find time to be in the moment of our Mid-Life Celebration.

Make it a sacred day, because if you don’t, who will? Carpe diem, jeff