The Two Choices That Keep a Midlife Crisis at Bay
Midlife crises express themselves in different ways for different people, but most commonly, Jaques argued, they lead people to question whether their lives are meaningful.
Adam Alter • Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most
“The curve seems to be imprinted on us as a way to repurpose us for a changing role in society as we age, a role that is less about ambition and competition, and more about connection and compassion.”
Jonathan Rauch • The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50
Still, this rubric of adult goals—the smooth development of stability in Quarterlife then the search for meaning in midlife—has long dominated our understanding of adulthood. Like many other long-held cultural beliefs, it begs for reconsideration.
Satya Doyle Byock • Quarterlife
In previous generations, depression was likely to result from internal conflicts between what we want to do and what authority figures – parents, teachers, institutions – wish to prevent us from doing. But in our high-performance society, it’s feelings of inadequacy, not conflict, that bring on depression. The pressure to be the best workers, lover
... See moreAs Boomers have begun turning fifty, the public discourse has become less refined and conciliatory and more impassioned and moralistic. Why? The midlife Prophet is replacing the midlife Artist.
William Strauss • The Fourth Turning
Recently we have been hearing of the “mid-life crisis.” Actually, this is but one of many “crises,” or critical stages of development, in life, as Erik Erikson taught us thirty years ago. (Erikson delineated eight crises; perhaps there are more.) What makes crises of these transition periods in the life cycle—that is, problematic and painful—is tha
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