There isn’t a man out there who doesn’t have the occasional thought, dream, and desire to do something great. I do not care what the current condition of a man is, he still has flitters of fire inside him. You are in a mid-life crisis because opportunities pass you by, you are avoiding risk, you cannot brag about your story, and you are eluding challenges. Immerse yourself in a task that makes time speed up and gives you a great feeling of accomplishment. That feeling you get is what you are craving! That is what I am craving!
When I solve a problem at work I feel accomplished. Beating the hell out of a deadline makes me feel accomplished. Performing the mundane day in and day out work (paperwork bureaucratic stuff), I don’t get that feeling of importance or of accomplishment. Yes, some boring stuff requires immediate attention but those things only take up about 15% of your work time (and if it’s more then work faster). This is something that is so important because you will work with people who spend all their time complaining about how long the mundane work takes. Do not be that person. Be the person that finishes that work quickly and correctly then moves on to the bigger problems. Nobody cares how good you are at the mundane work. You are easily replaceable, others can do it don’t forget that.
New Life Stage – Dad Stuff
As Dads we are moving into a whole new stage of life. We are now engineering a human, they will be your greatest project, creation, and success! We must not forget that we are still a work in progress ourselves. You cannot assume that once you have a child that you are done, No! Now you must work even harder to become even better and you cannot slow down. When you slowdown you become lazy, you officially begin the 2nd half of your life. You are responsible for becoming your child’s hero, making sure they know how to handle life’s challenges, to do that you must be a “tank”! We must be physically capable and emotionally in control, and you must never stop learning new things!
You wake up early and something tells you to get up, your brain steps in like the boss and says stay in bed! Screw that guy. Part of your emotional control is to overcome thoughts and make your mind and body do what you really want! Having emotions is part of being a human, learning to control and harness them is part of being a Dad. If mid-life crisis means trying something you should have tried when you were younger then so be it. One of the luxuries of getting older is that you stop caring what other people think. Some people are going to like what you are doing so do it for them. I like what Arnold Schwarzenegger says “Avoid the naysayers”. If social media has made anything clear it is that someone has an opinion about everything. So who cares, just do whatever drives you forward!
“Avoid the naysayers”
-Arnold Schwarzenegger
A dad-life crisis is a checkpoint, a fork in the road. You can go left which leads to the same thing everyday, the dad-bod, the immobile old bald dad (being bald is perfectly fine…cool in fact), the close minded we have always done it this way dad. You can choose right which is, the I need to finish the first project which is myself so that I can set the example for my child, the go try new things, the fun outgoing dad. Choose carefully because life has a limit and the only stuff you can truly leave behind are the values you have ingrained in your children, friends, and loved ones.
Now go out and crush some goals and motivate your children by living life!
-Matt
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