Mid life crisis

I was out running on a sun soaked Wanaka morning the other day with one of my best mates Sean. Because we don’t see much of each other Sean and I use our running time to catch up and often have deep conversations.  As we were heading up a tree covered trail Sean asked me a great question; “Will you have a mid life crisis?”. I love this question because it makes me look at the decisions I make in my life today and how they will affect my life in the future.  

A mid life crisis normally comes about when people have compromised some important areas of their life e.g. their health in pursuit of something else - often their career. These people wake up in their 50’s, they are overweight and unhealthy but have all the money they ever needed. At this time they try to rectify the years of unhealthy living by totally turning their lives around. Often it’s too late.  

When people are on the verge of a mid life crisis they can no longer keep putting off bad decisions and once this is identified they create dramatic change in their lives. At this point the decisions people have to make are huge, it’s the long term denial of small decisions that create the crisis.   

Think about brushing your teeth. You may be thinking, what does this have to do with a mid life crisis? Brushing your teeth is something we all know we need to do twice a day. If you are a really hard core about your teeth you will floss and use mouthwash as well. If you occasionally miss your daily dental care regime it probably won’t matter in the long term, you’ll brush, floss and mouthwash tomorrow. But if this becomes the norm, ten to fifteen years from now your teeth will be in terrible condition, you will be at crisis point and have to invest money in your dental care. At that time you will wish you had kept up this simple daily habit, a habit that is so easy to maintain. 

So the question I have for you is; are the small decisions you are making today going to lead to a mid life crisis? The good news is small decisions are easy to change, just be committed to making them today.