Any dissatisfaction in midlife is quickly referred to as a “crisis.” Therefore, work dissatisfaction during that period is immediately viewed as a midlife work crisis.
The Perception of Midlife Work Crisis and Its Sources
Most people I know are either very or somewhat dissatisfied with their work in midlife.
If they work for a company, they claim they’re either unhappy with their boss, colleagues or the company culture.
If they run their own business, they say they’re not happy with the market, their clients or their employees.
A common theme I noticed is the lack of meaning or purpose in what people do.
If you feel like you might be in a midlife work crisis, it’s possible that one of the reasons below is the culprit:
Your Achievements
Very often, dissatisfaction is related to achievements in life.
You may not have fulfilled the dreams or achieved the goals you set when you were young. You didn’t become a multimillionaire before you hit 40 or a CEO at 50.
It feels like failure. But is it really? How relevant are those goals now? Would you set the same goals for yourself today? Are they still important?
It’s not uncommon for people to discover that their early career goals are not that important
You might have noticed that even those dreams that became a reality, offered only brief satisfaction.
That high you experienced after receiving a promotion, an award, or hitting whatever mark you had set didn’t last, did it?
This is rather common.
We believe that we will feel happier after achieving a goal only to discover that the satisfaction fades away very fast.
Personally, I do not feel any happiness today from any past success or achievement. Do you?
However, I get a lot of pleasure from the small joys I experience in my daily life. A nice cup of coffee in the morning, a productive meeting
Social Conditioning and Expectations of Others
Although very hard to admit, we are always affected by the expectations of others. We are a product of social conditioning. We have a hard time to ignore what others consider success.
If you feel you are in midlife work crisis, take a moment and reflect. How much of this “crisis” is related to your personal wants and needs? And how much is it related to where you are supposed to be in your career according to external standards and expectations?
You’ll probably discover that
Don’t blame yourself. Do you know anyone that is completely unaffected by social conditioning and expectations of others?
The key in this point is to know it and understand the impact it may have to you. As a result, you can rationalize and control it.
Your Fears and Insecurities
It is a fact that the only constant in the world is change.
Today, in the business world change is fast and is accelerating. For businesses to survive in such an environment, they need to keep up with the pace of change.
Keeping up with change means that they have to be constantly changing.
In some cases this happens smoothly, the company evolves gradually. In other cases, change is disruptive and the company has to reinvent itself quickly to survive.
When change happens in your company, you never know how is it going to affect you. It might be a threat to your job and what you do or an opportunity.
This uncertainty may create excitement in some instances, but it also generates fear and insecurity.
What if you cannot make the necessary adjustments? What if you do not have the new skills needed and not enough time to acquire them?
You may also be in a company that does not change, or change is slow. In this situation, you may not feel fear and insecurity, but, mind you, the threat is still present.
If the company does not change, is it going to be able to survive in a fast-changing world?
This company can be the one you are working in, or even your own.
The fear of losing your job and your income are real. Are you going to be able to find a comparable job in midlife, or start a new venture, that can provide you with similar income to sustain your living standards?
You cannot make fear and insecurity go away, but you can manage it and keep it under control.
The Opportunity and How to Exploit It
Today, our work or career in midlife is far from being the beginning of the end.
Recent trends show that our lifespan continues to grow. Most importantly, with good well-being choices, we can expand our health-span significantly. Extending our health-span means, many more healthy and productive years ahead of us.
The three-stage life (Education, Career, Retirement) of the past, does not seem to be relevant in today’s world.
With life expectancy at 90 or 100 or more, with the potential of good health in the majority of those years, retiring at 65 does not seem realistic.
First, it will be difficult to finance a pension for so many years.
Second, and even more important, it must be
The Multi-Stage Life
In the book “The 100-Year Life”, Linda Gratton and Andrew Scott, present and analyze a new, multi-stage life model, which makes much more sense today.
In a multi-stage life, education, work, and even small retirements in between may interchangeably happen in our lifetime.
This is perfectly normal in a world that is changing fast. Your work will demand new skills, or you will need to embark on a new career; so you will have to re-educate yourself in midlife.
Having to work for more years, you will need to take some time off, to recharge but also re-evaluate priorities of your life.
In the multi-stage life, your life timeline has a different shape and form.
Education may be repeated in the middle of the work stage. Work stage can be extended beyond traditional retirement age in a different field and varied intensity. Work stage could also be interrupted by a mini-retirement or sabbatical.
Therefore, the multi-stage
With the multi-stage life alternative in mind, no matter what the source of your perceived midlife work crisis is, I am sure you are not willing to sit around and wait.
Taking action is the answer and there is no better time to act than now!
Here are the steps that can get you out of this circumstance and exploit the
Revisit Your Goals and Design the Life You Really Want
First things first!
There is no better time than now to take stock of your life, evaluate your priorities, consider the things that are most important to you.
During this exercise, the key is not to concentrate on work only, but your life in general. Work is part of your life and should complement it, not become your entire life.
It is important to be clear on what gives you joy and fulfilment in life. Work will be part of it, so it is best if it is compatible with your life needs and leads you to where you want to be.
An important element of this process is how you define “goals.” A goal can be an achievement that when reached is done, like winning an award, or, it can be achieving an decide state of living or state of mind.
What you should be pursuing is the latter. While it is great to go after specific goals, be mindful that the satisfaction achieving them brings, usually only lasts for a brief period.
It is the life and state you want to experience every day that matters most.
What does it look like for you?
Reevaluate Your Current Environment and Your Skills
When being in a job for a long time, it is not unusual to limit your focus to just certain aspects.
By doing this, we often miss the big picture. We are also oblivious to other things that happen in the periphery of our immediate environment. And these things can develop into opportunities.
At the same time, during many years of exposure and repetition, we are developing skills at a rather high level.
However, as this is a gradual process, we tend to underestimate or even dismiss the significance of the expertise we have acquired.
When this happens, we limit ourselves and our growth prospects within our environment.
That’s why it’s critical to take a step back and take stock of the skills and knowledge we developed so far. Those are our biggest assets.
Then, we should take a good look at our environment, our company, our business, the work market and see what is in demand and what is not being fulfilled by others.
The opportunities can be anywhere and there might be a new, exciting role we can fill in with success and great satisfaction.
The “Mentern ” Example
An excellent example of the combination of knowledge, experience and ability to see the big picture and changing business environment, is of Chip Conley.
A few years after 2010, when he sold the successful Californian boutique hotel company “Joie de Vivre”, which he founded in 1987 at age 26, Chip joined Airbnb as Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy.
His experience and his role(s) in the company as a “
In his book, “Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder”, Chip Conley presents the powerful options and alternatives you have in your midlife and beyond.
Do not underestimate your skills, and your life and professional experience.
Look out for the opportunities around you and dare to think and act big.
Midlife might seem like a bleak period in your life and the challenges at work don’t make things easier.
But with the right mindset, you can actually turn it into the biggest opportunity yet – it’s the first time in your life that you actually have the experience, the knowledge and the maturity to design the life you love!
Rob
Excellent post! Thanks for sharing your perspective on this important topic!