Tag: Death

Fatalistic

It's Not What It Appears To Be
It's Not What It Appears To Be

Do you have any earthly idea when your funeral will be held?

Are you comfortable with your own mortality?

Does death and dying scare you?

These are questions most people in midlife try to avoid. One of the benefits from a midlife crisis is that it’s a friendly reminder that the clock is ticking and there is still time to transform.

Yesterday, on one of the Delta legs to get home from Massachusetts where I gave a few speeches, I had a conversation with a younger man, maybe 30.

He said I had a fatalistic life view.  Not knowing exactly what fatalistic meant, and being caught off guard a bit by his evaluation, I waited until I could check the definition.

He was incorrect.

Why?  I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Mid Life Words

Nothing Under Mid Life
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?

Undertaker Mid Life

Pushing Daisies?
Pushing Daisies?

“Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” — Unknown

That would be a life full of Joy, don’t you think?

Have a joy – filled day.  Carpe diem.

Hate To Work?

“If you choose a job that you like you will never have to work another day in your life.” — Confucius

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?

Mid Life Crisis Candle?

Mid Life Crisis candle burning?  Nope.  It’s more like this:

“I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got to hold up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” — George Bernard Shaw

Thank you, readers and regular followers of Mid Life Celebration. Your support is one of the reasons I write daily.  The main reason, of course, is to leave a trail for our son.  My wife and I are in our early 50’s and he’s nine.

It’s sort of like The Last lecture concept, except I currently am not aware of any terminal illnesses.  In The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and given six months to live.  At that time, his three children were all six and under.  He set out to leave a trail too.

If you got some “bad news” and didn’t have time to “leave a trail”, would there still be one?