“I want you to get excited about who you are, what you are, what you have, and what can still be for you. I want to inspire you to see that you can go far beyond where you are right now.” — Virginia Satir
I am truly excited about the age I am. I’m midlife and a couple of years off my 50th birthday celebrations. A friend laughed when she read the subtitle of our blog “passionate about midlife” – it’s so ironic she said. Most of us, so the press would have us believe are scared of getting older. So to be passionate about midlife would seem to be going against the flow of current thought. Youth culture is such a powerful force in our society that the wisdom and experience of our lives is often neglected and even worse dismissed. We are our own worst enemy in this too. It really is time to stop putting ourselves down, stop belittling ourselves and our achievements and claiming back our power.
It’s time to give the world what we’ve got.
Take a serious look at what you have already achieved at this point in your life and believe that you can be so much more than you currently believe possible.
How would we live if we gave ourselves full permission to live life fully and give it everything we’ve got?
How would we live were we not afraid of getting older?
Would midlife be the time to give up or to finally get started?
What would you do differently right now if you knew you couldn’t fail?
Life will always be what we make of it, so if we want to curl up and think that time’s running out and it’s all downhill from now on then we will find confirmation of this every way we turn. However, if we decide that today is the beginning of the next phase in our life we will find that we already have the resources, the confidence and experience to make this second half of our life something quite extraordinary.
One of my favourite quotes comes from the American writer Marianne Williamson. She has written a wonderful book on midlife entitled “The Age of Miracles”. This quote however comes from another book. She says “Our playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people don’t feel insecure around you”. This is my midlife mantra.
If we have something to do or say in the world NOW is the time to get on with it.
Know that everything you have experienced in your life, I mean everything, good and bad acts as signposts for you to move forwards. You choose what you want to learn from.
Do you have a half lived life within you? If so what are you going to commit to doing differently? I’m looking forward to your comments.
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I love this. Thanks for sharing.
Jeannie, thank you for your comment. I hope it asked the right questions for you. Have a great weekend.