I Woke Up and Realized I'm Living the Wrong Life
I've noticed a 2-year pattern in my life that coincides with July 4th. I refer to it as my "personal Independence Day."
Today, I have achieved the uncommon: my 3rd midlife crisis! Call me crazy. I call it striving.
Deep inside all of us is the desire to make a breakthrough. Some of us need a breakdown (a crisis) to get there. Bruce Grierson calls it a "U-turn."
In his remarkable new book, U-Turn: What If You Woke Up One Morning and Realized You Were Living the Wrong Life?, he empathizes with those who feel that they are on the wrong side of the psychic divide. He writes that the "second brain" in our gut tells us that the life we are living must change.
In many cases, people make the change as quickly as they discover the need for it. Thus, the infamous "midlife crisis."
Drawing on over three hundred stories of U-turners and using scientific, philosophical, literary and psychological approaches, Bruce Geirson answers the question, "What would it take to change your life?"
My own answer is "necessity." It is of necessity that I'm reinventing myself, yet again, because the reality is that the entrepreneurial life is the wrong life for me today. I launched my business with high hopes but competition has changed in 10 years. It feels like failure to admit that I must now go work for someone. I pride myself on my independence but, as the saying goes, "pride go-eth before the fall."
Aha! Here's the breakthrough: Independence is an illusion. We are interdependent creatures out of necessity. The sooner I embrace that, the sooner I can stop U-turning and get where I want to be.
