The Modern Day Mid-Life Crisis

A mid-life crisis used to be described as this point in time when men would go out and buy a shiny red sports car and find a younger and blonder person by their side. Everyone could see these men were trying to tightly clench their own youthful vitality through redefining what made them feel alive. Overnight they seemed to go from stable providers of their families to starting over in virtually everything in their life. People who knew them didn’t understand what was happening and there seemed to be no talking sense back into them. We called it a mid-life crisis and prayed their senses would return soon.

Some may say the mid-life crisis is an awakening point whereas others see it as just plain crazy and life ruining. It can however be agreed it is triggered by our own rare glimpse of our mortality and realization life really is short. That insight spurs sometimes these monumental changes in our lives that seem insane to others. It is truly unfortunate it sometimes take us so long to have these awakenings though because rather than insanity it can be some of the most transformational growth we ever experience. It is also the exact emergence of what it means to live most naturally.

The idea that we have this event in our life at around age 40 where we finally feel bold enough to say we want something different in our journey is life changing. I think the pandemic however spawned a new form of the mid-life crisis and it has little to do with how old we are or our gender. The awareness that something or a few things are not giving us all that we need for fulfillment and happiness in life can feel restraining and confining all of a sudden. Things we used to take for granted as how things were supposed to be in life are called into question as we assess if they excite, motivate or even interest us anymore. Where there is a gap we hear it incessantly loud in our daily living and it disrupts the normal. I believe this loudness is a call of the natural wild where our souls are supposed to be living.

We all have these moments in our life where we question if something is the right decision but the mid-life crisis level of questioning is about if where we are headed is really where we want to go. We are taught that to have a good life we need to get a good education, find a good job, get married, buy a house, have children and retire to enjoy your grandkids. None of these things are bad or lead to unhappiness per se but what if our path truly is for something bigger or simply different than any or some of that? Filling that void with a new red sports car when we turn 40 is our attempt to reconcile that feeling. It usually is not the answer long term and instead it stifles this unsettling and most of us get back to our normal reality. However, what would happen if we didn’t hold back and instead let it be the launch of true change in our lives? Would we in fact create our life purpose and dreams or would we return to the safety of how life is supposed to be lived?

I believe the is mid-life crisis is a call from our own soul that our life needs assessment and change. It doesn’t mean what we have done so far is bad or wrong but that perhaps there is still more for us to do, achieve, build, dream and live. There are dreams we have not pursued and need to explore. This natural stirring is a caution flag that we may be settling because we’re afraid of the risk and unknown of what it could mean. Yet a mid-life crisis is a noise in our hearts that cannot be ignored any longer.

Being shut down by our own conviction we are just dreaming or what we desire is impossible makes it seem intimidating to consider pursuing our dreams at any age. It is why men were once thought temporarily insane when their mid-life crisis struck and they pushed changing their lives. I believe the pandem