What’s the one rule to guarantee you will avoid a midlife crisis? It’s easy! Never make a bad decision in your entire life.
Midlife Empowerment Coach Bitsie Thompson says a midlife crisis is not inevitable. “Just make only good decisions every day of your life until you’re 50. That’s the best way to rest-assured that you will not be a quivering mess as you acknowledge your mediocrity and simultaneously grasp that it’s too late to do anything about it, all on the eve of any major decade birthday post-40.
“You can try to be self-empowered,” says Thompson, “but 99% of everyone younger than you thinks you are 100 and you need to stop trying and get out of the way.”
(This post first appeared on Medium: https://medium.com/@dshoss/follow-this-one-easy-rule-to-avoid-a-midlife-crisis-94308b79ad91)
Never making a mistake is the only real path to self-actualization.
As far as relationships go, never fight with your partner. If you thought of divorcing your partner when you shouldn’t have, don’t do it. And if you didn’t divorce them when you should have, do it. Ask for that promotion but don’t if it will get you fired. Yes you should get that degree unless there’s a really good opportunity on the table. And of course don’t miss out on any investment opportunity, even if there’s no way to differentiate between a sound investment and frivolously throwing away money. You know what to do.
Don’t read books by people you know personally.
“Whatever you do, do not read a memoir by someone you went to grade school with who went on to be a global CEO and one of the highest net worth women in the fashion industry, especially if you both studied the same thing in college,” advises Thompson. “That will just prompt way too much self-reflection.”
“Self-reflection is the death-knell of gliding through the second half of life. You’re just asking for it,” she says.
And if you’re not sure if you have made only good decisions until now? Thompson invites you to attend her upcoming webinar, The Pathological Need to be Right: How to Justify Every Decision You’ve Ever Made to Remain Sane in the Second Half of Life.
