Midlife Mastery Journal

Today I celebrate my (ongoing) recovery . . . not from a physical disability, but from a dysfunctional belief system that threatened my very existence. I live in a daily reprieve from succumbing to the belief that I am a victim of circumstance. Today, regardless of the challenge, I live in the knowledge that with every breath that I draw comes a new opportunity for spiritual growth.

I’ve never heard anybody say, “If I can’t compete in the Olympic decathlon anymore, just shoot me!” Never. Not even once. But, when you start talking about slowing down mentally, the paradigm shifts. If you’re not as sharp at 50 as you were at 25, maybe it’s time to call in Dr. Kevorkian.

Outside forces are seldom enough to shatter the ‘American Dream’. No, it’s what’s more likely to be going on inside that erodes the foundations and, more frequently than we’d like to acknowledge, leaves those dreams behind in a heap of ashes.

Of course, every day that we live (and the passage through the midlife transition in particular) means that the probability of some serious event’s occurrence grows. Isn’t it obvious that, every day you life is one day closer to the day you’ll die?

When you, as an adult planning for the midlife transition, begin to take stock of what it’s going to take to get you through it successfully, you need to take into consideration the fact that your priorities will change — and change drastically.