How did I end up here? What am I doing with my life? What’s missing? Where did all the fun go? Who am I?
Have you been asking yourself any of these questions? Are you frustrated or discouraged about the lack of answers? Have you been so busy being responsible you forgot how to have fun? Is it an unconscious, endless loop of the same tasks each day?
Some call it a mid-life crisis. Chances are you're simply exhausted from living on autopilot. There's no joy in just existing.
It’s a powerful observation, but what do you do with it?
All too often when someone bumps up against this feeling, they try to do the things they did as a young adult. The problem with this approach is those activities are not filling the void any more than the day-to-day grind is.
How do you turn your crisis into an adventure? How do you get the passion and excitement back in your life?
The first step is to remember who you are. Yes, I said remember who you ARE. Sometimes we get so busy doing, we forget all about the be-ing.
The following exercise will support you in this remembering process.
1. List 3 qualities you absolutely love about yourself.
2. List 3 things you do well.
3. Ask 3 friends what they feel is your best quality.
4. Ask 3 friends what they feel you do best.
Chances are, once you take the time to remember who you already are, you’re going to like yourself again. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Chances are, once you take the time to remember who you already are, you’re going to like yourself again. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Once you have completed this exercise, you can begin to look at what new qualities you’d like to have, and new things you’d like to learn to do well. That’s when the adventure begins!
This is a really important point I want to bring to your attention. Notice how I languaged that. “New qualities you’d like to have” and “new things you’d like to learn”. It’s important and valuable for you look at things as new and additional rather than wrong and needs to be changed or deleted.
Here are a three questions you can ask yourself to begin your new Midlife Adventure.
Here are a three questions you can ask yourself to begin your new Midlife Adventure.
1. List one quality you’d love to have.
2. List one thing you’d like to learn to do well.
3. Choose the Celebrations you receive for taking these first few steps on your new Adventure.
I’m starting you out with one quality and one skill for a reason. You built your present strengths mostly one at a time. By playing with one at a time, you automatically increase your success exponentially.
Let me give you a visual for this.
You have 10 fingers on your hands. Each finger pushes a new quality or skill into your life. All of your effort gets distributed amongst the 10 fingers, so each gets 1/10th of your effort.
What would happen if all 10 fingers pushed on one new quality or skill? Yes, your quality or skill gets 100% of your effort, but your results are actually exponential. You’re putting in 10 times the effort, but your results will far exceed your expectations.
To summarize, there are two steps to change your Crisis into an Adventure.
1. Remember who you are.
2. Add new qualities or skills that excite and grow you into who you’d like to be.
This mid-point of your life is a wonderful new beginning. Make it an Adventure!
*~*~*
Velma Gallant, “The Queen of JOY!”, is an Abundance Coach, speaker and author. She is a best-selling co-author with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra and Dr. Wayne Dyer in “Wake Up…Live the Life You Love…Finding Personal Freedom”. Velma also writes a weekly e-newsletter which can be found at http://www.WelcomeChanges.com. You can contact Velma by email at velmaATwelcomechangesDOTcom, or toll-free at 1-800-992-2863.
