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The first thing to do if you reach a midlife crisis, says Tony Segal, an Israeli life coach, is to count your blessing. "Older people have many advantages that our society tends to ignore", he says. "When we are older, we are less prone to stress. We already know our strengths and abilities and how to use them wisely. The fear of failure doesn't stop us as it used to. We are no longer in a hurry to achieve or prove ourselves, we are more attentive to ourselves and we have the time and patience to create our new ventures".
All in all, older people are much more capable of experiencing freedom and happiness. "People in our society believe young people are more carefree and happy", says Segal. "But true freedom comes from knowing who you really are. Young people often have limited self awareness and are busy trying to please others - they are far from being free and it may take many years before they can reach this level of freedom in their lives".
The ability to experience real happiness also has a lot to do with knowing who you are, and what life is all about. "This is where an older age has a real advantage over youth. You may have more wrinkles on your face or less hair on your head, but your understanding of who you are, what you really desire and what makes you happy, is a lot greater".
How successful you can be?
Since life expectancy nowadays is growing steadily, it's about time we get used to the idea we can and should start over at the ages of forty, fifty and even sixty. In order to make our second or third life a success, we need to let go of some negative myths we grew up believing. The first one is the notion that growing older means our body and mind start deteriorating. Another one is the belief that older people can't learn new things or that they can't change.
It isn't easy to let go of these beliefs. We live in a society focused on youth. We are led to believe that only young people have access to opportunities to turn their dreams into reality. We hear of young people who are doing great things or older people who did great things when they were young, all around us. We rarely hear about older people gaining recognition for achieving greatness late in life. But older people can and always have achieved greatness. What they lost in terms of their youth and good looks they gained in experience and self awareness. Here are some prominent famous people who climbed their way to fame way after their forties:
Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, sold his first hamburger when he was already in his fifties. He tried his hand at a number of trades, traveling across the country, but only in 1955, at the age of 52 did he buy a fledgling restaurant chain and develop it into the largest, most influential fast food chain in the world.
Ronald Reagan, a not so successful movie actor in Hollywood, was first elected as governor of California at the age of 61. In 1981, at the age of seventy, he became US president and served in office for a full eight years.
Winston Churchill was 65 when he was first became prime minister and led England to her greatest victory in World War II. And Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa at age 76, after 28 years in prison, that didn't do any harm to his intellectual abilities.
Politicians and business men are not the only ones who have achieved greatness at an old age. Geoffrey Chaucer, an English author, poet and philosopher, best remembered for "The Canterbury Tales", wrote it between ages 54 and 61. And Goethe, a German writer who is considered one of the key figures of German literature, accomplished the first part of his greatest book "Faust" at age 59, and the second part at age 83.
Let's not forget Frank McCourt, the author of the bestseller "Angela's Ashes" who began to write in his sixties, Leo Tolstoy who was writing novels into his seventies, or Michelangelo who was sculpting in his eighties. As you can see, old age is far from being the end of the road. As a matter of fact, it's only the end if we say so.
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The first thing to do if you reach a midlife crisis, says Tony Segal, an Israeli life coach, is to count your blessing. "Older people have many advantages that our society tends to ignore", he says. "When we are older, we are less prone to stress. We already know our strengths and abilities and how to use them wisely. The fear of failure doesn't stop us as it used to. We are no longer in a hurry to achieve or prove ourselves, we are more attentive to ourselves and we have the time and patience to create our new ventures".
All in all, older people are much more capable of experiencing freedom and happiness. "People in our society believe young people are more carefree and happy", says Segal. "But true freedom comes from knowing who you really are. Young people often have limited self awareness and are busy trying to please others - they are far from being free and it may take many years before they can reach this level of freedom in their lives".
The ability to experience real happiness also has a lot to do with knowing who you are, and what life is all about. "This is where an older age has a real advantage over youth. You may have more wrinkles on your face or less hair on your head, but your understanding of who you are, what you really desire and what makes you happy, is a lot greater".
How successful you can be?
Since life expectancy nowadays is growing steadily, it's about time we get used to the idea we can and should start over at the ages of forty, fifty and even sixty. In order to make our second or third life a success, we need to let go of some negative myths we grew up believing. The first one is the notion that growing older means our body and mind start deteriorating. Another one is the belief that older people can't learn new things or that they can't change.
It isn't easy to let go of these beliefs. We live in a society focused on youth. We are led to believe that only young people have access to opportunities to turn their dreams into reality. We hear of young people who are doing great things or older people who did great things when they were young, all around us. We rarely hear about older people gaining recognition for achieving greatness late in life. But older people can and always have achieved greatness. What they lost in terms of their youth and good looks they gained in experience and self awareness. Here are some prominent famous people who climbed their way to fame way after their forties:
Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, sold his first hamburger when he was already in his fifties. He tried his hand at a number of trades, traveling across the country, but only in 1955, at the age of 52 did he buy a fledgling restaurant chain and develop it into the largest, most influential fast food chain in the world.
Ronald Reagan, a not so successful movie actor in Hollywood, was first elected as governor of California at the age of 61. In 1981, at the age of seventy, he became US president and served in office for a full eight years.
Winston Churchill was 65 when he was first became prime minister and led England to her greatest victory in World War II. And Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa at age 76, after 28 years in prison, that didn't do any harm to his intellectual abilities.
Politicians and business men are not the only ones who have achieved greatness at an old age. Geoffrey Chaucer, an English author, poet and philosopher, best remembered for "The Canterbury Tales", wrote it between ages 54 and 61. And Goethe, a German writer who is considered one of the key figures of German literature, accomplished the first part of his greatest book "Faust" at age 59, and the second part at age 83.
Let's not forget Frank McCourt, the author of the bestseller "Angela's Ashes" who began to write in his sixties, Leo Tolstoy who was writing novels into his seventies, or Michelangelo who was sculpting in his eighties. As you can see, old age is far from being the end of the road. As a matter of fact, it's only the end if we say so.
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