50-year old men may take comfort in learning that their signs of midlife crisis are vastly different than the newly minted, mid-life men of 35. Goodbye to the Porsche or Harley Davidson. Say hello to Botox and extravagent holidays.
Research commissioned to launch the DVD of Wild Hogs, featuring four middle-aged men on a road trip, found that British blokes spend 24 billion pounds per year to turn back the clock as mid-life crises begin to kick in earlier than ever. Tom Phillips, a UK psychologist, suggests that a number of reasons are at play.
"It used to take people years to inherit some big job, whereas now if you've got talent you can get spotted very quickly. That means that you can get burnt out a bit sooner, and therefore you've got the syndrome of the mid-life crisis. "And when that burn-out happens, these men need to take time to discover parts of themselves that may have otherwise remained latent," Tom added.
Burn-out is certainly one sign of a midlife crisis as is the desire to escape the rat race. I consider my particular midlife crises to be part of an ongoing midlife transformation, albeit career related. Once I've mastered a field of study, it makes no sense for me to continue plowing the same acreage. Echoing my sentiments is Todd who asks, "Who Needs A Midlife Crisis?"
I think reevaluating where one is in life is always a good thing. What do you think?
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