Mid-life crisis or mid-life opportunity?
Mid-life crisis, that’s what men go through in their forties, when they leave their wife and children to hook up with their blond, young bimbo of a secretary, and go cruising down the highway with her in the newly purchased red cabriolet, on the way to a saucy weekend in a seaside resort, isn’t it? Well, that’s how we often depict it in contemporary Western society at least. But the mid-life crisis is actually something far more important and meaningful than that. Or at least it can be. If we stop dismissing it as a joke, and open our minds to it as an opportunity for growth and self-actualisation.
Carl Jung referred to mid-life as the afternoon of life, noting that “We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what in the morning was true will in evening become a lie.” Thus, many people begin to realise at mid-life that they no longer can live by what they once believed to be true. For a lot of people this realisation comes in the shape of a crisis.
A mid-life crisis can be precipitated by any life event, really, but around mid-life is when we start experiencing the deterioration of our bodies and health, the death of friends and acquaintances close to our own age, and perhaps the breakdown of long-term relationships.
Regardless of whether or not your mid-life comes with a crisis, it is definitely a time where you have the opportunity to make one or several of the most important decisions of your life. Again, to quote Carl Jung, “the greatest potential for growth and self-realisation exists in the second half of life.”
If any of this rings bells of recognition, you may want to read the full article… And even if it doesn’t apply to your own life, perhaps you know someone who may be in a (mid-)life crisis, and who may find this article worthwhile – please, make sure to pass it on to them!
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Be well, and enjoy being!
Kind regards,
Lars Andersson
