Tag: Gen Y

Identify Your Highest Skill

“Identify your highest skill and devote your time to performing it.  Delegate all other skills”. — Ronald Brown

Mid life adults get to mid life for a variety of reasons, including luck, passion, focus, discipline, etc.  What we do once we get to mid life is a different game though.

How?

Why?

Many reasons to be sure.  Well, at least if we pay attention. Many people at mid life have the proverbial Mid Life Crisis, lasting from a few hours, a few months, and even a few years.

One of the mid life tips to consider is to do what Ronald Brown suggests.  Only one challenge with that though?

Most have no idea what their highest skill is.  None.  Crisis?  What crisis?

Busiest Day of the Year?

“Tomorrow is always the busiest day of the year”. — Jonathon Lazear

Ain’t it the truth?  At least that’s the way it feels.  Why?

You may feel differently.  But for me, it seems like tomorrow is “the day” that, “I’ll finally be able to catch up with things“.  So I race hard to get so much done.

Time marches on and there is simply more to take the place of that which has been done.  Ever heard the phrase, “busy beaver“?  Beavers work hard every day, repairing their dam, fixing their den, looking for food, etc.  Seems there is always lots of work to do.

What’s the solution?  If I knew that, tomorrow would be looking like a vacation day, eh?

Ignorance In Action

“Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action”. — Goethe

What does this mean exactly?  Perhaps it is as simple as this:

“The unexamined life is not worth living”.   — Socrates

We get one passage here on Earth.  Let’s make it a good one.

Mid Life Workaholics

“Workaholics commit slow suicide by refusing to allow the child inside them to play”. — Dr. Lawrence Susser

Recognizing the intense desire to do a good job, many people still have a challenging time overcoming mid life work addiction.

My Grandfather worked full-time, plus he ran a TV repair business out of his basement.  This was back in the day when Televisions were heavy and huge.  He had to travel to people’s homes.  This traveling and the work required to repair TV’s in the basement, plus the travel to return the TV, must have made his work commitment enormous.

My Dad worked 5 1/2 days every single week at the Paper Mill.  On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, he taught 30-minute drum lessons in our living room – from 4pm until 8pm.  On Friday and Saturday nights, he played drums in a band – weddings, anniversaries, clubs, etc.

Now it’s my turn. Working at a Fortune 100 Company, there is no shortage of work to be done. And I’ve done it willingly for several decades.  Now, I’m also working on my retirement business – to help raise enough money to find a cure for our son’s Crohn’s disease.

The difference, I perceive, is that I have found creative ways to be part of our son’s life.  But only after I squandered the first four decades of my life.

Mid Life Ecclesiates?

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven;  a time to be born, and a time to die;  a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted”. —  Ecclesiates 3:1-2

And a time for mid life, which happens in it’s own unique way for virtually everyone.  For some, like me, it can easily last a decade.  For others, perhaps it comes and goes over a weekend.

The essence of a mid life crisis is that it’s a time for reflection, and asking:

  • “How did I get to this point in my life”?
  • “Is this where I thought I wanted to be”?
  • “What is the purpose of my life”?
  • “Is there anything I need to change”?
  • “Can I change it, and is it even worth it”?

Life is hard.  There is no manual telling us exactly what to do.  There are so many unpredictable things that change, destroy or inspire our plans.  It’s up to each of us to choose wisely.