Mid-Life Crisis: Balancing Dreams and Reality

A few days back, I came across a story about the mid-life crisis — a nice one.

Bodily we go through hormonal changes in our life, the one which we face without any hormonal changes is a ‘mid-life crisis’, which seems a must for many of us.

We feel that condition mainly in the late 40s or early 50s.

So, what brings it to us? And why at that particular age bracket?

Is that because that age is just the middle point of our average life? Or is it because by the 40s we are married, have kids and a bit settled in whatever we do?

We step out of college in our early 30s, get busy getting a job, and by mid or late 30s get married and have kids.

Then we think of managing the married life, the responsibilities, the priorities. We get so busy with all these things that we don’t get time to stop and think about anything else.

By the late 40s or early 50s, we get into a bit of relaxation or I must say it as a routine, not because everything is settled, but because life has got a rhythm and tuned the way, it worked so far.

Then we keep thinking, about how far we have reached. Is this what we have thought of to do in our life?

What happened to the dreams we have seen at a young age? What about that entrepreneurial journey, we thought to take?

That dream to be a singer/dancer?

Then we see our peers and college mates, who took risks in their lives and lived a different kind of life.

We all started the life journey together, but the paths we had chosen were different.

Few went ahead with uncharted territories, sacrificing their love life, and family, few haven’t even cared about the health but earned a big one for themselves now.

Few with small dreams and no big aspirations are doing better, happy with whatever they have and not indulging in any comparison with anyone.

People like us or myself, who chose a regular path with no risks or comparatively lesser risks. Prioritised easy life over the difficult one.

I have not wanted to step and stand in the Sun for some more time and sacrifice family life and love for a better tomorrow.

Then suddenly reality hits us when we reach middle age and makes us think, what have we achieved in our life?

Is it happening just because we feel that we have no time left now to start anything afresh?

Or because the basic needs, we aspired for are taken care of?

We then suddenly remember those odd quotes shared on social media — “What do you want to do in your life?, You have only one life, make the best of it., What is your biggest achievement?”, And so many.

We feel burdened with all these and the basics being taken care of gives us time to think about all these unachieved things.

Here we have just two options which I think as –

One is to be content with what we are up to so far, as at some point in time in life, this is what we wanted and aspired for and many times circumstances were such that we didn’t have any option.

The second one is to get up and face the risks. Not everything is lost; we can start afresh if we have the guts and daring to face the unpredictable.

I will prefer the latter one, because, it will help me start my journey once again and I would like to end this with one more famous quote, which is in Marathi, my mother tongue, which translates as –

“The pain of not fighting is greater than the pain of defeat”.

P.S. – If time permits, please have a look at my book.