Disney Leadership Keynote Speaker
Five daily blogs about life's 5 big choices on five interconnected sites.
Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.
So much of Mid Life Celebration’s struggles, hopes, dreams, challenges, failures and victories are similar to yours. jeff noel never intended to have such an abundant number of blog posts, but, if you were to surf the archives or categories, you might find the earlier posts insightful because where jeff noel is today, is not where he was three years ago. Are you still in the same place you were three years ago?
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Sometimes all you can do is just stay in your lane, watch your speed and go through the tunnel to what lies on the other side. After speaking to my same age female friends, I am realizing that midlife for women can be just like leaving Manhattan en route to New Jersey. We’re entering The Holland Tunnel and there’s no turning back.
My friends and I used to have boundless energy. We would stay out until the city closed down, then go out for breakfast, and then sleep until well into the next day. Now we stay up all night, too. Only difference is we are home in our well-worn PJs, listening to our men snore the night away while we suffer yet another bout of hormone induced insomnia. Sleep deprivation does strange things to people. I wouldn’t say we are having mood swings, but just because I wouldn’t say it doesn’t mean there isn’t evidence to the contrary. One of my friends told of how she sobbed her heart out watching a documentary about salmon. Oh, how those fish struggle to spawn. Knowing just how she felt, I shared with her how I cried my eyes out because Dust finally found true love when the Swiffer Duster came by and swept her up into its fluffy, flexible fibers. I have also cried over Sandals Resorts commercials, SPCA ads featuring unwanted and abused animals and most recently commercial where, right before her father’s eyes, a little girl suddenly morphs into a teenager while sitting behind the wheel of a car.
Sometimes my husband looks at me with a mixture of amusement, worry and pure, raw fear. (Google Dr Oz: 4 signs of perimenopausal rage). Bless his heart, some nights he gets a four course gourmet meal and the next night he has to sort through the pile of take out menus that are thrown in his general direction. Easy for him to judge; he sleeps through the night and he doesn’t sweat profusely in the middle of a blizzard. My advice for him is to just stay in his own damned lane, not even think about hitting the horn, and keep looking straight ahead until he sees sunlight on the other side of the tunnel.
Dear readers, most of you are fellow Baby Boomers in midlife. We have reached this glorious milestone for a reason. Could be serendipity, or that we were chosen for a specific purpose. Daily personal journaling is an almost guaranteed way to discover this for yourself.
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Maybe we ought to thank the retailers for reminding us so far in advance that Christmas is coming. Cynical midlifers will see this as financial exploitation. Thankful midlifers will see this and wonder if maybe retailers could advertise and sell Christmas items year round.
We have come to know the true meaning of Christmas when we learn to celebrate it everyday.
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Media and retail bombardment remind us of what’s the next big thing we can buy, celebrate, fixate on, and medicate ourselves with. Neither good nor bad. It’s a free world, anything to make a buck, right.
But jeff noel wonders what would happen to the Boomer’s mindset if we could act like everyday is Thanksgiving. Every day worth celebrating.
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