First off, if I was having anything, it would be a mid-life apocalypse. A mid-life crisis is for people who underachieve. I would most certainly do it bigger.
Secondly, I see it more like a mid-life awakening. I've spent way too much time drifting through life. I would go as far as to wish away days just to get to the magical "weekend". A weekend that would inevitably be filled with too many activities, only to leave me depressed on Sunday night thinking about what was coming the next day.
I need you to understand something. My last day job was great. Good people and a good company that did things the right way. When I left, I told the CEO that I would not be leaving to go to another company, and I meant it. The issue was...I wasn't meant to be in an office. Any office.
Somewhere along the way I got confused as to what the "pursuit of happiness" should be. I turned it into what I thought was a safe, sterilized existence that was really just the illusion or idea of safe and sterilized.
The rally cry was "go to school and get a good job". The goal was stability and financial security. The means would be a degree in Computer Information Systems, because I thought "I could make some good money doing that".
The result - a good job, a nice house, some nice toys, a bi-weekly direct deposit, stability, and financial security. Everything but the happiness.
But how could those things not make you happy? Didn't you just describe the American Dream? Yep, I believe that sums up the American Dream. Just not my dream.
Last week, my lovely wife sent me a quote from Teddy Roosevelt. It is one of the most inspiring things I have ever read.
It's not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat. - Teddy Roosevelt
Mr. Roosevelt, your words still ring true to me over 100 years after saying them. I will not settle for someone else's dream. Even at the risk of failure, I will dare to live life and achieve more than just existence.
go Live BIGGER
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