How would you define an ideal life?

The social environment sets some expectation about the ideal life, such as get an education, a good job, marry, have children and buy your own home.  Give yourself a round of applause if you have fitted in the box and have achieved all that others expect of you.  Unfortunately, research shows that many that fitted in the box of an ideal life, found they still felt a void they could not fill nor explain which might eventually lead to an experience panic and anxiety of some form.  On the other hand, those that were unable to achieve all that the society expected of them were made to feel like an under achiever which then breed regrets and self-unworthiness.

This seems to be the kind of race many go through in the first half of their lives, with pressure to keep up or give up.  Then comes the second half of our lives, which is termed Mid-life and we begin to ask ourselves questions about does aspect of our lives that didn't work exactly as was expected, if we dwell on it too long we would begin to judge ourselves on what we could have done differently.  There is actually nothing wrong with going through those processes but it's what we do with the process  that matters.  Some of these questions becomes so transparent that it can sometimes become overwhelming and because we develop real emotions during these times, a feeling of urgency is created in your spirit that results to what is termed Mid-life crisis.

We all respond to this moment differently, for some an overwhelming regrets about the mistakes they have made in life and even when they have lots of things to celebrate and be grateful for, they emphasise on the not so good aspect of their lives and this dissolution may cause them to put all their aspirations in a corner gathering dust with excuses such as I would have love to do something else but it is probably too late to start something new or I must remain in this job I hate so much because it pays the bills, so they become stuck in the rut by not doing anything about it.  Unfortunately, the situation we don't do anything about would remain the same.

If that sound like you, then I will encourage you to come out of your shelves and avoid all self-sabotaging thought about moving forward and start cultivate an attitude of a new age mid-lifer who would embraces what is true for them during their reflection and also see this moment as the greatest opening in their life to re-invent and re-brand themselves "The Age of Miracle" is a book authored by Mariannes Williamson and it states that many lives have been transformed during their mid-life years, some have turned what seems to be termed mid-life crisis into great successes in career and businesses, created a fulfilled lifestyle for themselves and made a difference in the lives of others.

Having gone through this new era of mid-life myself  and still navigating the course of my life towards my dreams, I have become an advocate of applied positive psychology, which states according to a research done by (William & Davies, 2002) that negative situations or what we no longer want in our lives can be shifted away when you take your attention from pathology and pain and direct it towards a clearer concentration of strength, vision and dreams.