Tag: Gen Y

Mid Life Showoff?

Mid life show off?  Depends.  It’s all in the eye of the beholder isn’t it?  Recently, I heard someone make a few snide remarks about me – “What a showoff.  No shirt.  Trying to impress people”.

“Dude, are you talkin’ to me”?, I asked impatiently.

“I guess I am”, the person said, also sounding impatient.

“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to show off.  Went for a run earlier this morning”.

He then says, “Why not wear (baggy) gym shorts”?

To which I respond, “I’m a sprinter, and sprinters never wear baggy shorts.  Ever watch swimmers”?

He quickly says, “Yes, with the skin tight pants”.  “Exactly”, I say.

What was interesting was this:

  1. The person made judgements strictly from my appearance
  2. I never lost my patience
  3. With both walked away feeling better about both of us

Amazing what a little patience, creativity and self-control can do to get better results – skills instilled in me for the past 25 years.  Hope it didn’t look like I was showing off.

What Is A Mid Life Crisis?

What is a mid life crisis?

One thing for sure, it isn’t a mid life celebration.

Just look at the difference in the two words:

  1. Mid Life Crisis
  2. Mid Life Celebration

I mean seriously, if you could only pick one, which would you pick?

Every Man Is Guilty

“Every Man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do”. — Voltaire

This thought almost has me speechless.  Seriously.  Wow.

This is a profoundly simple, yet simply profound statement.  Why?

It signifies, perhaps, one of the original seeds of mid life crisis.  We get to mid life and question, “What the heck happened to all my plans to do great things”?

If we are strong enough and focused enough, to have the will to turn our mid life crisis into a mid life celebration, we can realize a second chance in life.  It’s up to each one of us.  And yes, it will NOT be easy, but it will be worth celebrating.  Big time!

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?

Be Afraid to Stop

“Be not afraid of going slowly;  be only afraid of standing still”. — Chinese Proverb

I just wrote a blog post at jeff noel.com about this very subject.  About wondering if now is the right time, if the current approach is the right approach.

This type of potential self-doubt and potential fear, can sabatoge us from breaking through to something we can be great at.  And something we should be great at.  It’s just that we are late bloomers and are playing catch up.

This time delay – from creating a compelling vision – to it actually materializing, takes way longer than most people can comprehend.  This is why people give up and stop,

So, be not afraid of going slow.   Be afraid of stopping.