Are you having or have you had a quarter/mid-life crisis?

[LisaO]

My question is prompted by a topic I was reading recently on another forum about the prevalence of the so-called "quarter life crisis" among 20-somethings. Far from being an overreaction to the big bad world by self-indulgent Gen Y'ers - and all the other descriptions we are so often branded with! - it actually seems to be a very real problem. From reading the forum it seems so many young people are really disillusioned with the world and struggling to find their place within it.

 

From my own perspective, I'm 23 and at the end of last year scored what I thought was the perfect graduate job only a month after finishing my degree. Mere months later and I so know it's not for me, it's a very superficial industry and not at all how I want to fill 50 precious hours a week. It's really made me think about what I want out of life and what my priorities are (which have turned out to be very different to what I originally thought they were).

 

Can you relate? Have you been through a similar "soul searching" period at either quarter or mid life (I've added in the latter cos I think my 49-year-old mum is currently experiencing the same thing)? Or is it all a load of new age rubbish and we should just put up with the cards we're dealt in life?

[splodgeyAl]

ride a bicycle on the road - that'll put life into perspective

[JoeP]

I think it's only natural to question where you are in life, what you're doing and how it's all hanging.

 

There's no reason to make it a 'quarter or mid-life crisis' though - just accept that it's normal and do something about how your life is going if you don't like what you see.

 

By the age of 35 I'd done a heck of a lot of what I wanted to do when I was in my teens, and my re-assesment of my life was pushed on me by external circumstances. It would have been easier had I had the opportunity to take a look without the world and their dog kicking the crap out of me.

 

However, even if I was pushed in to change, and behaved a bit like a horse's bottom on occasion (this was my late 30s) ultimately the EXPERIENCE of change was good, and now I do reviews and 'course adjustments' pretty regularly.

 

I have a personal Mission Statement, and list the things I want to do and the things that are important to me, and just keep what I say and do in teh world congruent with those lists and my Mission Statement. No nasty surprises, and no overwhelming urge to go and buy a motorbike.

 

BTW - I'm now in my mid forties.

[The Rat]

I think it's only natural to question where you are in life, what you're doing and how it's all hanging.

 

There's no reason to make it a 'quarter or mid-life crisis' though - just accept that it's normal and do something about how your life is going if you don't like what you see.

 

By the age of 35 I'd done a heck of a lot of what I wanted to do when I was in my teens, and my re-assesment of my life was pushed on me by external circumstances. It would have been easier had I had the opportunity to take a look without the world and their dog kicking the crap out of me.

 

However, even if I was pushed in to change, and behaved a bit like a horse's bottom on occasion (this was my late 30s) ultimately the EXPERIENCE of change was good, and now I do reviews and 'course adjustments' pretty regularly.

 

I have a personal Mission Statement, and list the things I want to do and the things that are important to me, and just keep what I say and do in teh world congruent with those lists and my Mission Statement. No nasty surprises, and no overwhelming urge to go and buy a motorbike.

 

BTW - I'm now in my mid forties.

 

I feel for you Joe in a non sexual kind of way you understand but I can't seem to get out of my head the fact that you behaved a bit like a horse's bottom on occasion.... what does that entail exactly?

[JoeP]

I feel for you Joe in a non sexual kind of way you understand but I can't seem to get out of my head the fact that you behaved a bit like a horse's bottom on occasion.... what does that entail exactly?

 

Not even worthy of wasting bandwidth replying.