Now that You’ve Hit Midlife, What are you Going to be When You Grow Up?

Sometimes you get forced into change through no fault of your own.  Although it is often scary, change can be an opportunity to finally do what you’ve always wanted, assuming you know what that is!  How can you make the most of the changes you’re going through?  How do you decide which changes will steer you in the right direction and which ones won’t? 

You do it by creating a stable, internal point of reference – a clear picture in your mind of what you need to feel satisfied. To feel in control and actually be in control, you need to make choices based on your inner direction. The choices of the past have brought you to where you are now. If where you are now is not satisfactory, you can make new choices.

If you could be anything you wanted to be, what would that be?

If you don’t know, start by thinking about where your greatest pleasure is.  Think about those times when you’ve been supremely happy, when you felt like you were your best self, when you felt “jazzed” and alive.  Those times when you’ve felt a deep sense of satisfaction. 

This may not be a quick exercise and it may not be easy but persevere. Make a list of 20 such experiences. Perhaps some of these were early on in your life.  These parts of you may have been lost or hidden as you made your way through life perhaps taking on many of the expectations of others.  Let these hidden gifts come out into the open and provide direction for positive change.

Which of these gifts would you like to use more fully in a new career?

Which ones do you need to express? 

Where might these be needed?

How do you want to act on them?

Great ideas come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear, amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirrings of life and hope.  Albert Camus