Think again

A midlife crisis isn't inevitable. It can come down to whether you view your later years positively or negatively.

- Marc Wilson

I have not gone to Tibet to find myself, and definitely not considered trading in my Nissan Tiida for a Harley, or my wife for a new model. I have just finished building a deck, but that’s more of an indoor-outdoor-flow kind of scenario than a midlife crisis.

That’s not to say that people don’t feel the pressure of the midlife crisis, something many of us take for a cultural and social reality.

Is it real, though? Well, if people experience it, then it’s real to them. This is a different question from “Is it inevitable?” or “Does everyone experience it?”

You might feel the urge to shave your head and meditate in a yurt, but midlife crises are more generally characterised by a smorgasbord of often uncomfortable emotions and thoughts. These could include worry about the state of things, as well as whether your life is meaningful, and, unsurprisingly, that thinking is accompanied by dissatisfaction with said life.