Gwenn Clayton, guest author, How to Stop Your Midlife Crisis Now
I am in my forties. I am very happily married with two fabulous young children. I love where I live and have lot of friends and fun.
However a few years, despite all of the above, I was left in the throes of a midlife crisis. Why? Because of just one thing - I felt I had wasted several years of my life trying to set up a small business that ultimately was a failure and meant all the financial sacrifices we had made were to no avail.
As a result, I felt that all the great things I did have in life didn't matter because overshadowing everything else was the belief that I was 'a failure'.
For me that belief was my downfall. It took quite a while for me to shake it off and renew my faith in myself.
Part of my journey to renewal was to write down the beliefs I had about myself that were useful and those that were not. For example: I am lucky; I am happily married; I have two great kids VERSUS I am a failure; I am no good at business; I hate selling, etc.
I began by consciously changing the latter as I realized that I could hold on to them and ultimately feel destroyed by them or change and reframe them so that my beliefs could empower me.
Now I believe I am successful. This is true if I look at other areas of my life (marriage, kids). I learned some great business lessons and am the better for them. And I gained useful insights into the world of selling.
Take some time to write down what the positive beliefs you have about yourself. Keep reading that list - it will inspire you.
Take time too to write down what, if any, beliefs you have right now that are not serving you in midlife. Once you have that list, as I did, convert them to positive beliefs instead.
At the end of the day you get to choose how to describe yourself to yourself. I know the new set of positive beliefs made all the difference to how I felt about myself.
For more information on setting smart goals midlife, visit Gwenn's website.
