What is it about turning 30-something that has fueled a cliche as old as our grandparents? With every tabloid and celebrity endorsement, we're learning that 40 is the new 30 and naturally, 30 the new 20. So it should be assumed that a mid-life crisis isn't scheduled to start until our 50's, right?
What defines a MLC anyway? Loss of stability? Loss of confidence? Lack of faith?
Regardless of the cliche, or the definition, we're still all facing a perpetual unsettlement in regards to social standing, family accomplishments and corporate success. Only now, instead of keeping up with the Jones' we're more focused on keeping up with the Zuckerberg - successful, rich and painfully young to have mastered it thus far.
Lately, I've spent more time than I care to share pondering my future, my life decisions, and how it all balances out in the end. As we sit and chase the proverbial happiness dream, I'm starting to worry its more of a fictitious character in a choose-your-own adventure book. (How's that for speaking to my peers?)
We all want to be happy. We look for it in promotions, home remodels and gas guzzling SUV's. We check for it under the the rock of social status and outward appearance. Admit it, how many facebook friends do you have?
Some people are finding it in monetary value, others in spiritual involvement. Some in radical ideas of social company and others in sobering solitude. But is this making us happy? Can it be narrowed down to a single necessity that will make the difference or is it more likely a balance of all the above?
And a second point to ponder...why does it hit us now? What it is about getting through the first third of our life that has us reaching for a shrink and accompanying prescription? Could it be that we're caught between two worlds of wanting and having? Is it the shift in generational goals and practices? Afterall, we're starting families later, instead choosing to focus on fun and fortune. We're faced with teenage talent and 20-something entrepreneurs at every corner, only increasing the competitive drive to be better, bigger and brighter.
It seems as though most 30 something's are looking to the grass on the other side of the fence. Those with great jobs and monetary success are wondering when the family and picket-fence security will lock in. Those with families and real-estate are reeling at the cost of mortgages and childcare with more time than money to spend. No one seems to have it all. Maybe the MLC is the human mind's way of registering a major reality check that many don't seem to survive without the collateral damage of divorce, hardship, uprooted families or destructive restlessness. Maybe it's all in my head, but it is there.
Who has these answers anyway? And what is his number? I need to have a chat.
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