Life is pretty simple. We’re born. We grow. We live. We die.
Midlife offers us an enormous opportunity to decide on a few things, with one of the biggest being this question:
Am I going through the motions?
It’s As Easy As
Author: jeff noel
Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.
American Idol Showdown
Love or hate it. American Idol is down to the final two contestants. Both Crystal and Lee will become famous recording artists. Winning American Idol isn’t necessary for either, but the winner obviously will have endorsement opportunities that are harder to sell when you’re runner up.
Over the years we all become fans of a TV show or two. American Idol became a Family “event” years ago, after I became intrigued with Simon Cowell’s brutal honesty – which I found refreshingly inspirational.
This year, it’s still a Family event, minus my participation – too many other things clamoring for attention – until two nights ago.
And it was just last week, knowing that the season ends soon, I asked our son who he thought would win. “Lee!”, he said.
What does today’s post have to do with midlife?
Everything. While the contestants do not get a second chance to “do over”, we do. It’s called midlife celebration – a once in a lifetime chance to:
- Rethink
- Reprioritize
- Recommit
Do It Again
Today is a new day. Today is your day. If you’re not feeling overwhelmed, then consider yourself lucky, and rare.
In my line of work, I seem to see a lot more than most. Traveling. Speaking. Listening. Sensing.
It’s a brutal world out there.
Everyday is an opportunity to be a leader and face the daily grind head on. Because if we don’t pick this choice, what’s the alternative?
To Teach Is To Learn Twice
Are you a teacher? If you are alive, you are a teacher. It’s that simple. Every day is an opportunity to make a difference. You can teach not only others, you may also teach yourself.
Yesterday, after giving a keynote speech in the morning and then an afternoon workshop, a white-haired man approached me and said, “We teach what we most want to learn.”
His comment was motivated by my comment, “To teach is to learn twice.”
Not only did I challenge the audience to take some type of positive action, but in that challenge also was the opportunity for them to teach the anxious ones in their organization – the ones who can’t wait to hear what they learned.
An Apple A Day
Technology for mid-lifers, and many others actually, is scary. But it doesn’t need to be.
Heck, as we heard in Lorie Sheffer’s Guest post yesterday, Marriage can be scary. Remember what her grandson said, “Doesn’t anyone stay together anymore?”
Maybe a good question for Baby Boomers is, “Doesn’t anyone keep up with technology anymore?” How do you address this? “Head in the sand” or “take the hill”?
Happy Mother's Day
