The Myth of “Mid-life”

Mass media’s fixation on fresh-faced youth and all that’s hip, trendy and new, brainwashes us a bit, doesn’t it? Sayings like, “Forty is the new twenty” (or thirty, or anything BUT forty, as long as it’s younger), are meant to be empowering and suggest that we are more active and vibrant than those who reached our age generations past. Still, referencing a younger age and earlier time feeds into the myth that we leave our “best years” behind us with each passing day. We falsely and willingly accept the lie that big dreams are reserved for the young and changing course later in life is for the foolish. We allow that toxic narrative to drive our decisions and lead us down a path of compromise and regret.

Here’s the reality: Our accumulated time is our greatest asset. The failures, successes, lessons learned, loves, losses, trials and triumphs all cultivate a perspective that only accrued time can give us. They season us in a way the younger versions of ourselves could never even fathom. We are at our most experienced, our most insightful and most powerful than we have ever been, right NOW. If we have children, we are their influence. Despite what we tell them, we show them who we are by what we do. Would you knowingly teach your children to be fearful of change? Would you verbally teach them the language of limitation and self-compromise? Or, through your actions, would you show them how to grow, create and thrive? How to discard what’s killing their souls and teach them how to heal themselves? Right now, you have the power to do something incredible for yourself. Time has given you a gift. Don’t waste it.

How will you honor your gift NOW?  What example will you show?