"Am I having a midlife crisis?"
It’s the kind of question that hits you out of nowhere.
One day, you’re going through the motions, everything seems stable, and then BAM—you’re questioning every decision that got you here.
Am I stuck?
Should I be doing more?
Is this really all there is to life?
It’s easy to write it off as some kind of existential crisis, right?
But what if it’s not?
What if this feeling of wanting more is actually your mind and body pushing you towards a transformation you need to make?
I felt that exact same pull.
At 29 years old, my friend was convinced that I was going through a midlife crisis because I quit my job and started making videos.
But here’s the truth:
This is not a breakdown, it’s a breakthrough.
In this video, I’m going to show you why this so-called “crisis” might be the exact thing you need to finally take control of your life, and give you the blueprint I used to actually start doing it so you know it’s not just fluff.
Let’s dive right in.
I was chatting with one of my high school friends last week.
She’s a lawyer, and recently moved close to where I live in order to get her Master’s degree.
We were talking about everything that’s going on with each other’s lives, and she mentioned how proud she is of me for quitting my job and pursuing my dream.
She was also not fulfilled with corporate life before deciding to go back to school, and knew that my job wasn’t making me happy anymore.
But as supportive as she tries to be, she seemed a little worried.
She thought I was having a midlife crisis.
From where she stands, she sees this guy who suddenly abandoned his career that took years of education and experience to build, and started making YouTube videos.
Maybe she thinks that I’m acting impulsively, and I don’t know what I want.
Maybe she thinks that I’m lost or depressed, as I’m questioning the big decisions that I’ve made in my life.
And rightfully so, concludes that this may be a midlife crisis.
What she doesn’t know though, is that I’ve never been clearer about what I want in life.
I know exactly where I’m headed; and despite having no clue what challenges I’ll face along the way, I know I can deal with them as long as I keep my eyes on the horizon.
Wanna call it a crisis?
Fine, let’s call it a crisis.
But to me, it’s a turning point, and the opportunity of a lifetime.
I see it as a passage from the first half to the second half of my life.
I SHOULD be questioning the decisions that I have made, and the decisions that have been made for me decades ago that led me to be where I am today.
I SHOULD have a sense that there must be more to life, and chase it rather than what’s stable and pays the most.
That’s the only way I can make a change, and move towards a remarkable life where who knows what dreams actually come true.
Now, would I rather ignore this feeling, or embrace it and do something about it?
Ignoring it makes me the guy who never gave it a chance, and I already know how that feels.
Finally recognizing it and taking action unlocks a new path, and I have no idea what it has to offer.
I don’t know about you, but I’ll take the latter any day of the week.
It’s how I’ll ever be able to make those dreams my reality.
And if you’re feeling like this too, the same urge to change your life, maybe this ‘crisis’ is the spark that you need to evolve into the person you know you could become.
Now I don’t mean to say that you should just quit your job and do whatever you want to do.
That would be no different than flipping a coin to risk it all.
It must be a smart decision with at least the following things relentlessly considered:
First, you should know yourself and have a general sense of what you’re capable of.
I’m saying “general”, because the limit of your capabilities will positively surprise you once you start actually doing it.
What are your talents and things that make you go “I think I’m good at this”?
What do you love doing the most, and don’t even realize the passing of time while doing it?
How do you think you can help others with it, and eventually get paid for it?
If you’re able to answer all of these questions, congratulations; you’ve found your “ikigai”, or reason to live.
But as simple as they seem, I know it’s not easy to answer these questions.
For me, it took a lot of reflection on my work, and noticing the simplest things that were out there the whole time.
I eventually realized that it was making presentations that I enjoyed the most about my job, and more importantly, my colleagues loved watching them too.
I figured making videos is not much different than slide decks; it’s only for a better purpose, so here I am.
But I didn’t just go “Yay, here’s my ikigai, f**k everything else”.
Unfortunately, I have bills to pay, and you probably do too.
That’s why you should give yourself as much runway as possible before you do something like this; so that you don’t have to worry about paying your bills while trying to create a new life from scratch.
Set reasonable expectations, and save as much as you can to cover yourself given those expectations.
For the past 2 years, I’ve been saving up so that I could live for a year doing this without having to worry about money.
This may sound impossible to achieve, but when you know what your goal is, it’s actually pretty effortless to do.
Create a Google sheet right now, and write down how much you’re paying yourself monthly.
This is not how much you make every month, but how much you’re actually able to bag after you paid all your bills, taxes, living expenses, mortgage payment and all the sh*t that you buy.
See how long it really takes for you to save enough to buy yourself a year.
This will not only show you that you can actually do it, but also force you to be more frugal so you may get there even faster.
I don’t know if you want that new iPhone more than your dream life though, so that’s your decision to make.
Finally, you need to ask yourself the most important question:
Are you able to sit down and do the work without someone telling you to?
Can you shift your perspective on discipline and see it as a tool, rather than something that detains you?
The company I worked for was kind enough to give me 3 months of sabbatical to experiment with this new path that I wanted to pursue.
They wanted me to see if I would actually work on it or just chill and do nothing, in case I was experiencing a burnout.
Two other people had taken this kind of unpaid leave in the past, and they both came back after 6 months.
After the first day of doing it, I knew I wasn’t going back.
If you can check all of these boxes for yourself, it’s only a matter of pulling the trigger and giving it a shot.
Ultimately, it’s a question of whether you think you stand a chance or not.
I’d like to believe that I do, and I hope you feel the same about yourself.
Mid-life, early-life, late-life, it doesn’t matter.
You taking action towards your dreams is how you’ll ever achieve them.
It’s how you’ll ever get to the better part of your life.
It’s not a matter of your age.
It’s a matter of how long you wait.
It’s never too late.
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