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Les Brown Articles

Written by: Les Brown

Disillusionment and the Second Stage of Life - Click To Read Article
The disillusionment that marks the transition from childhood to adulthood is all a part of transitioning through the famous five stages of grief. Midlife means acceptance.

The Most Terrible Feeling of All - Click To Read Article
Emotions are not just expressions for midlife men, they're the key to unlocking his self-image, his self-esteem, and his self-respect. Midlife can be a very dangerous path.

Wisdom Is Knowing What We Don't Know - Click To Read Article
Comprehension, as most people understand it, is not a strength but rather a weakness. People often presuppose wrongly that everyone has the same comprehension as they do. Arrogance insists that our vision of the "facts" is the right one. Humility demands that we be aware of how much of our own personal interpretation goes into our vision of reality. We begin to have real comprehension once we realize that our perspective may not be the only valid one.

The REAL 'Secret to Success' - Click To Read Article
If you want serenity, seek humility. Seek it in the eyes, the words and the deeds of those around you. Because, once you've found it and embraced it, you'll discover that you've found integrity and courage as well.

The Courage to Change the Things I Can - Click To Read Article
We're appalled when people stand by doing nothing while others suffer, yet, if we haven't got a habit of courage, we're likely to be doing the same thing.

Puberty, Morality, and Maturity - Click To Read Article
The stages of moral development parallel our physical evolution. What happens when someone gets stuck in adulthood?

Anger - the Hidden 'Gotcha' of Midlife - Click To Read Article
The infamous midlife crisis exhibits a confusing tangle of emotions. At its core, the central feeling is anger. Until that's resolved, you're most likely going to stay stuck.

Circle of Influence vs Circle of Concern - Click To Read Article
It's entirely too easy to become overwhelmed by the world's problems. If we don't pay attention to our circle of influence, we may allow ourselves to become wholly ineffective.

Five Stages of Midlife Transition - Click To Read Article
Wisdom dictates that, for every life element that we humans are required to relinquish, there opens a new creative possibility. Although I genuinely subscribe to that belief ("When God closes one door, he opens another"), grieving must occur for every door that closes, and few (if any) of us can fully enter the opening door before fully grieving the closing one.

Do Fewer Women Have Midlife Crises? - Click To Read Article
Casual observation suggests that women have fewer difficulties transitioning through midlife than men do. For men, it requires a cultural revolution.

How Do I Avoid Thee? Let Me Count The Ways! - Click To Read Article
Many men would be really furious at me if they thought I questioned their courage. But it's true: women tend to be far more courageous than their counterparts.

Midlife Dispells the Security Mirage - Click To Read Article
The belief that we can work our way to security becomes a deadly trap in midlife. Acceptance at a deep, spiritual level provides the only way out.

Life Is Change (Stagnation Equals Death) - Click To Read Article
The "pursuit of happiness" is an exercise in chasing your tail. Midlife teaches you that happiness is what you experience in pursuit of your destiny.

Understanding the Need for Radical Change - Click To Read Article
Why do organizations often turn on those within it who have their best interests at heart? Why do change efforts so frequently end in 'more of the same'? Much of it has to do with the cultural systems operative in each organization. Change is scary, and the 'poison we know' often seems preferable to the 'poison we don't know'. Even rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic can be doubly aggravating when there's someone coming along behind you, putting them all back where they were. Radical change is more than 'thinking outside the box' — it's acting outside the organizational box.

Your Midlife Crisis, Transition, or Transformation? - Click To Read Article
If nothing else, midlife is the time for making critical decisions. How you choose will determine how successful you'll be.

Emotional Pain Management - Click To Read Article
'Pain is necessary; suffering is optional' or so goes the old saying. With midlife, even a lot of the pain is optional if you choose to address it.

Does Midlife Make You a 'Lone Wolf'? - Click To Read Article
The US scores highest in the world in the realm of cultural individuality vs. collective concern. The result can easily be a nearly unbridgeable isolation.

Appreciation As A Fundamental Awareness - Click To Read Article
Appreciation allows whatever we're used to taking for granted to come forward into our awareness. This is true of our own value as well as that of others in our personal, social or business networks. Suddenly, we find we're living a richer, fuller life, and we have a much clearer perception of how we can make it that much more satisfying and rewarding.

Your Life in the Balance - Click To Read Article
Do you feel that you're constantly being accused and judged? Is your life and self-esteem in someone else's hands? Is there something positive you can do about it?

Your Deadly Assumptions - Click To Read Article
From earliest human history, males had to earn the title 'man' by fulfilling an assumed role. Now that the role is becoming obsolete, what does being a 'man' mean?

Your Own Personal Stile - Click To Read Article
It's a fact of the human condition: transitions never come easily. They always appear as an interruption in the kind of life we desire and even plan for: a life of security, tranquility, ease, and peace.

Your Life - Slip-Sliding Away? - Click To Read Article
Change yourself, and everything in your life will change. It seems so simple, but so few people are willing or able to actually do it. You have the choice; you have the chance. It's your life; you can make of it what you want.

Willpower, the Only Cure for Gravity - Click To Read Article
As men get older, their health becomes less of a concern, just when it becomes more critical to their quality of life. All it takes is willpower.

Xenophobia and You - Click To Read Article
If fear lies at the root of every midlife crisis (and it does), then what steps must we take to defeat it? Overcoming cultural bias is a primary strategy.

Why Men Get Lost in the Clouds - Click To Read Article
Women seem to navigate their way through midlife with fewer crash landings than men do. Men need to learn the navigational redundancy that comes naturally to the opposite sex.

What Is Midlife, After All? - Click To Read Article
My semi-scientific survey indicates exactly what I suspected: that few people really understand when or what midlife is. Here are some data for you.

What Will Your Transition Cost? - Click To Read Article
Although culturally it may cost men to become introspective and to examine in some depth what's really important to them, the cost of failing to perform this kind of self-examination could be much higher. It cost you everything you hold dear.

When Generations Collide - Click To Read Article
Managing midlife affairs among generations has never been easy, and there's no quick fix. To be successful at it, you've got to start talking NOW.

When Are You 'Over the Hill'? - Click To Read Article
Are you approaching one of those 'significant' birthdays? Does it strike fear in your heart? You might want to have another think about the matter.

When Making the Right Choice Goes Wrong - Click To Read Article
When was the last time you examined your core values? Do you even know what they are? Are you aware of the extreme influence they have over your daily decision-making processes?

When 'Bored' Is the Name of Your Game - Click To Read Article
When boredom stops being an occasional feeling and becomes a way of life, it can signal more than clinical depression. It can be a powerful indication that you're entering your midlife transition.

When Your Well Runs Dry - Click To Read Article
Just when we think we're completely drained and haven't a thing more we can contribute, we need to stop and think twice. Maybe it's not so much how much we're giving, but how little we're putting back in that matters.

When Your Clock Strikes Midnight - Click To Read Article
No matter how long you've been 'Belle of the Ball,' there comes a time into every person's life that the clock strikes twelve. What happens then (or is it NOW)?

What Will Your Next Career Look Like? - Click To Read Article
Job security? Retirement? Dream on! No matter whether you're currently employed or not, you've got another career in your future: count on it!

When Will I Ever Learn? - Click To Read Article
If we can remember, we'll understand that adolescence ended at a point in time. Although the hormonal changes end with midlife, the deeper changes keep right on going.

What's Happening to Your Husband? - Click To Read Article
Women know that their husbands have changed (not for the best); men think it's all their wives' fault. What's a woman to do?

What to Do When the Tables Are Turned - Click To Read Article
'Men's midlife crisis' is a grouping of words that seem to fit together. What can you do you're the man and your wife's the one exhibiting the classic midlife crisis signs?

When You Stand at the Turning Point - Click To Read Article
"Taking Care of Business" may be exactly the wrong thing to do when it's all about to come undone. In this economy, that could be tomorrow!

What You Want vs. What You Need - Click To Read Article
Real failure leads directly to transition. Real failure at midlife leads to transformation. When you finally reach that moment of desperation when all your best thoughts and efforts lead you to the brink of catastrophe (and perhaps over), you may then be ready to let go of what you want in favor of what you need.

Who Am I? - Click To Read Article
Want some help getting to know yourself better? Here's a little exercise that I've put together for you to help you to work through this transition.

What to Do When You're in Hot Water - Click To Read Article
I've said all along that the midlife transition is essentially a spiritual one. It's a transition from being externally-focused to becoming interiorly-focused. 'Maturity' in this perspective means shifting your focus from the superficial to the essential in your life.

What Do You Need? What Do You Demand? - Click To Read Article
It's remarkably easy to confuse 'needs' and 'wants' with 'demands'. Fulfilling our needs leads to progress; demands only lead to disappointment.

Want A Meaningful Life Get a Balanced One - Click To Read Article
You want a great life, and you want it now. A balanced life seems like a good idea for 'someday'. What if the former depends on the latter?

What If I Get Sick? - Click To Read Article
Why do guys fear midlife? The chances of anything bad happening to you at midlife aren't that much greater than them happening tomorrow.

Vision Correction as a Metaphor for Midlife - Click To Read Article
As you get older, things tend to get fuzzy and you need to get your eyes examined and to accept help to fix your vision. The same thing happens in midlife.

Turning Obligation into Celebration - Click To Read Article
The holidays are upon us, and, especially during the midlife transition, they can be overwhelmingly stressful. Can you redefine what they're about to keep your sanity?

'Twas the Night before Christmas - Click To Read Article
The holidays are a reminder, as the year transitions, that we, too are always in transition. The Spirit of the holidays can remind us that the joy of the season arises only from within.

Three Top Reasons You're Not a Success - Click To Read Article
If midlife finds you feeling like you're a failure, perhaps it's because you misunderstand success. There are three beliefs that can cripple even the best of us.

The Threat of Abundance - Click To Read Article
The midlife transition creates the greatest drain on your personal energies that you'll experience. There's only one way I know to re-energize yourself: spiritually.

The Young Adult and the Ostrich - Click To Read Article
There are two strikes against young men approaching midlife: denial and arrogance. Both can lead to unfortunate consequences. Neither is necessary.

The World's Having a Male Midlife Crisis - Click To Read Article
There are some extremely stark parallels between what's happening on the global scene and what's happening to men at midlife. Too bad the former isn't as easy to address as the latter!

The World As You Never Saw It - Click To Read Article
The core of a man's midlife crisis represents a challenge to him to assume a new perspective on his world: one where he rejects all blame and accepts responsibility for his life: present and future.

. . . The Wisdom to Know the Difference - Click To Read Article
One of the most heart-wrenching moments in life is when you meet a dead-end. One of the most difficult decisions is accepting it for what it is.

The Scariest Hallowe'en Ever - Click To Read Article
What's more frightening, fantasy or reality? Is it any wonder that people naturally prefer to get scared by their fantasies? But, it's the realities that are out to get you!

The Myth of the Adult - Click To Read Article
Becoming an adult is not the great milestone that it's made out to be. In fact, most of the false assumptions of childhood are just carried over there piecemeal.

The Male Brain - Hardwired to Fail? - Click To Read Article
The male brain is hardwired differently from the female brain. Until now, it's been the males' turn to shine; but things are quickly changing.

The Other Side of the Mountain - Click To Read Article
Although the life that emerges from the other side of the midlife transition can be of the highest quality, it's not always 'fun.' Responsibility has many rewards, but it still costs.

The Masculine Mystique - Field of Lost Dreams - Click To Read Article
Culture has a positive role to play in nurturing a young man into an adult. At midlife, that culture must be challenged, otherwise it can strangle a lifetime of dreams.

The Only Way to Win the Battle of the Sexes - Click To Read Article
At midlife, it seems that men and women are at each others' throats rather than having each others' backs. For maturity to happen, things need to change.

The Arts Are a Waste of Time - Click To Read Article
Midlife is a time when science and technology, although wonderful, fails to satisfy. It stimulates our need for deeper levels of creativity.

Tell Me, What Does It All Mean? - Click To Read Article
The essence of midlife is a huge paradigm shift. The essence of a midlife crisis is the refusal to change. The only question is, "Will you take responsibility for your life?"

The (Aging) Parent Trap - Click To Read Article
When people think about midlife (and the crises that surround it), they don't always consider their unique relationship with their aging parents. That adds a whole other dimension to the mix!

The Arrogance of Self-Destruction - Click To Read Article
Are your really that smart and self-reliant? Or are you secretly too arrogant to admit that there's something you don't know or can't do?

The Boomer Survival Guide - Click To Read Article
If the name of the game is 'Life', then 'uncertainty' is how it's played. All the other illusions are merely debilitating distractions along the way.

The Endangered Working Male - Click To Read Article
This economic crisis is not like any we've experienced before. It will fundamentally change the makeup of the workforce for many years to come.

The Courage to Change - Click To Read Article
The truth is that, when it comes to change, together we can do what we cannot do alone.

The Cost of Doing Nothing - Click To Read Article
Nobody can make proactive investments in your life for you: it's entirely up to you. As I've mentioned often before: at midlife, the training wheels come off. The expectations and constraints that ushered you through childhood, adolescence and adulthood have served (or outlasted) their usefulness.

Success Is a Dead End - Click To Read Article
'Success' as defined by the adult world is a static concept that's bound to lead to ennui. Midlife gives you the chance to get yourself back on track.

Statistics, Setbacks and Self-Esteem - Click To Read Article
When, during the midlife transition, it seems as though the universe has it in for you, you're not imagining it. Statistics support your feelings.

Sorry, Guys — Time's Up! - Click To Read Article
It's clear that midlife hits men harder than women, because men lack the social network that supports transition. They're also culturally disinclined to listen.

Sounding the Emotional Depths - Click To Read Article
The emotions of midlife are characterized by confusion: not an emotion. When you dig down more deeply, you find the real root of the chaos — and the solution.

Sliding Downhill - from Commitment to Denial - Click To Read Article
The path of least resistance will inevitably lead to catastrophe. Midlife demands a constant recommitment to living a balanced life.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? - Click To Read Article
Every day, someone leaves his or her life partner to find or to acquire someone 'better'. And very often, some of these people discover that the relationship they created was as bad or worse than the one they left. If patterns of dysfunctional behavior are following you around, take a look at the common denominator: it's YOU!

Repent! The End is Near! (3) - Click To Read Article
'Begin with the end in sight,' writes Stephen Covey. As the year ends, now's a really good time to think about your end: who would you like to be then?

Repent! The End Is Near! - Click To Read Article
As we come to the end of the year, we might wonder, 'What do I do when I come to the end of a midlife relationship?'

Repent! The End Is Near! (2) - Click To Read Article
This has been a very tough year for people, especially men at midlife who face job loss. If that's you, what could help you get through it even stronger than before?

'Purposeful Change': The Way Forward - Click To Read Article
Change happens all around us, but we're not 'victims' of change. We have a critical part to play in seeing that change moves us in a positive direction. That's what 'purposeful change' is all about: getting involved as an architect of the future.

Recognize Your Emotional Sleight-of-Hand - Click To Read Article
As people get into midlife, they often become very busy taking care of very important matters. Too often, those 'matters' are merely a misdirection from what's really going on.

Ravished by Midlife - Click To Read Article
With all the attention that the 'midlife crisis' gets, is it any wonder that guys miss the gift that midlife offers? It's time to wake up and get moving!

Punching Yourself Until They Give Up - Click To Read Article
The midlife transition is all about transforming your life from the externally-motivated value system of the adult to the internally- (that means spiritually-) motivated life that characterizes the mature individual. One key factor in this transformation — a factor that is way too often neglected — is doing a moral housecleaning.

Prayers That Are Always Answered - Click To Read Article
Prayer can be a touchy subject, often because it is so easily misunderstood. Once we can connect with its essence, its essential role in life becomes clear.

Paving a Road to Hell - Click To Read Article
The world's greatest prayer is composed of four letters: 'help!' Isn't it our own cowardice (our fear of admitting our dependency) that keeps us from uttering that prayer?

Over 30 Need Not Apply - Click To Read Article
For most people, physical aging is the first sign of the onset of the midlife transition. It can be a chance to avoid the ominous midlife crisis.

Obligations and Expectations - Click To Read Article
We start out life, given a set of assumptions that act as 'training wheels' until we're ready to strike out on our own. Sadly, some people never do.

Our Secret Anti-Aging Formula - Click To Read Article
Transitioning into midlife is not a job for wimps. Yet, there's an effective way to do it, if you only know how.

No Little Pill Will Fix It - Click To Read Article
You can't go through an evening of watching TV without hitting an ad for an ED remedy. Yet, at midlife, no little pill will fix what ails you!

More Than Muddling Through - Click To Read Article
Midlife crisis is the 'default' condition: the way things will happen if you do nothing at all. Want to avoid it? You can!

Midlife Is the Antidote - Click To Read Article
A lot of what we do as adults can be classified as 'medication' because it numbs our feelings. It's often only the dreaded pain of midlife that allows us to break through.

Midlife and Catastrophe Consciousness - Click To Read Article
The mathematical concept of 'catastrophe' suggests a sudden, irreversible change within a dynamic system. In midlife, we face the ultimate catastrophe.

Men Don't Know What They Don't Know - Click To Read Article
Our Western, English-speaking culture can be dangerous or deadly to men's health at midlife -- unless they can learn to listen to their own bodies.

Memories for Midlife and Always - Click To Read Article
Today, as you stand at the crossroads of your own midlife transition, may that gift of God teach you, too, to remember who you really are in the larger scheme of things and, as the invulnerable spirit that you yourself are, to remember that nothing and nobody can really hurt you (without your permission). The spirit of the bold midlife transition is a spirit of acceptance, a spirit of humility, and a spirit of forgiveness. Embrace it: it's your birthright!

Loving the Man in the Mirror - Click To Read Article
Self esteem goes beyond just doing good deeds. Our memories hold images and feelings from the past that collect and weigh us down. Get rid of them!

Looking into the Heart of the Beast - Click To Read Article
Sometimes, even after the midlife transition, your emotions still be volatile. Yet, when that happens, you will have learned some good tools to handle them.

Living a Life of Regret - Click To Read Article
Remorse, regret, guilt, and shame are all powerful emotions that can cripple men and women in their midlife transition. One very simple phrase can set you free.

Living Life on Life's Terms - Click To Read Article
Just because we've lived long enough to be of 'retirement age' doesn't mean that retirement will actually happen for us. In fact, we need to prepare for just the opposite.

Life Is Coming At You - Are You Ready? - Click To Read Article
The only constant is change, yet we get a strange sense of (false) security from handling only those issues right under our noses. Not a good idea.

Leading with Your Strengths - Click To Read Article
Making a difference starts with banishing negativity from life. Changes happen when we start focusing on our achievements and surrounding ourselves with people who support rather than disparage us. As they have unique perspectives to offer us, we, in turn have unique strengths that they need. This is what I call 'social economy' — we 'supply' them what we have to offer and 'demand' that they offer to those in their circle their unique best.

It's Always Something -- If It's Not One Thing, It's Another - Click To Read Article
Yes, there are strategies that you can adopt to manage life's frequent unpleasant surprises. Like most life strategies that empower you to handle the issues that midlife throws at you, almost all of these strategies involve simply changing your mind to see the reality that life presents you in a different light.

Is 'Adulthood' Just Postponing Growing Up? - Click To Read Article
Surprisingly, that age-old question, "What do you want to be when you grow up," too often remains unanswered through adulthood.

Inter-personal Inter-ruptions - Click To Read Article
When difficulties arise in interpersonal relationships, you have choices. These choices are less about what you choose to do about it, than how you choose to interpret it.

Is Marital Infidelity Genetically Determined? - Click To Read Article
Recent scientific investigations suggest that infidelity may be programmed into the genes of up to 40% of all men. With all the stress of midlife, do men have a chance at happiness?

Is The Man in the Mirror a Fraud? - Click To Read Article
When the midlife transition hits men, the whole family may be thrown into chaos without really understanding why. The 'man in charge' is probably more baffled than anyone.

Involuntary Midlife Reinvention - Click To Read Article
Every event in life can be seen either as happening to us, or happening for us. How we look at it takes no more effort than Epictetus expended in coming to the realization that we are, after all, the Meaning Givers in the physical universe and that whatever meaning we choose to put on events will, ultimately, determine their outcome and their effects.

I'm Sure I'm Terminally Unique - Click To Read Article
Many people bear the burden of feeling as though they're the only ones who feel that way. Refusing to take others into their confidence only contributes to this delusion.

I (Dis)Honestly Love You - Click To Read Article
One aspect that suffers greatly during midlife crisis is your primary relationship. Knowing what's happening (and how to cope) is critical.

I'll Take the High Road — Will You? - Click To Read Article
Midlife presents each man with a clear fork in his road: one leads forward to an authentic life; the other backward to childishness. Your choice?

I Can't Get No . . . Satisfaction - Click To Read Article
The ways that women and men choose to deal with the midlife transition are diametrically opposed: one approach works; the other one doesn't. Which is which?

How to Deal with Slowin' Down - Click To Read Article
One of people's greatest fears about midlife is that it means slowing down. Is slowing down really a bad sign?

How Deep Will Your Midlife Crisis Go? - Click To Read Article
Of all the difficulties that a person can face during the course of a lifetime, the midlife crisis is perhaps the worst. That's because its source runs so deep.

How Much Are You Leaving Behind? - Click To Read Article
Most people think of their legacy as the fruits of their labors. On the contrary, your true legacy derives from who you are not what you do.

How Not to Beat Yourself Up - Click To Read Article
The extremes of hyper-responsibility and hyper-irresponsibility are two sides of the same coin. Holding the middle ground often means detaching with love.

How Stuck Are You in Your Job? - Click To Read Article
How's your level of job satisfaction today? Pretty lousy? What practical steps are you taking to change it? to survive?

How Powerful Is Your Denial - Click To Read Article
The defense mechanisms of denial and blame help to protect the fragile male ego. They also block him from creating a healthy self-image.

Getting from Child-ish to Child-like - Click To Read Article
Education turns out to be a process that separates the individual from his or her intuition. Midlife offers an opportunity to recapture what was lost.

Getting Our Anniversary All the Way to Happy - Click To Read Article
Whether we're aware of it or not, the midlife transition has a huge effect on our relationships. Every anniversary is a time for measuring our growth with gratitude.

Get Proactive or Face the Consequences - Click To Read Article
The key to avoiding a midlife crisis involves looking ahead beyond the immediate crises that sap your energy and attention. Being truly proactive is your only effective way forward.

Finding Peace with Yourself - Click To Read Article
Men and women both have the same opportunities to achieve true maturity. Though it's more difficult for men to make that transition, success offers them even greater capacity for joy out of the contrast.

Facing the Wreckage of Midlife - Click To Read Article
The single most-reported concern about midlife is about loss of looks and health. However, this concern often covers up the really damaging changes going on much deeper.

Exit Plan or Shot In The Dark? - Click To Read Article
Have a great job that you love? Have a lousy job that you hate? Before you have no job at all, you need to know where you want to go and plan for it: not later, NOW.

Facing the Financial Crunch - Click To Read Article
We're watching the financial markets dissolve into paroxysms of insolvency before our eyes. Regardless of whether we've been planning for our futures or not, our options have suddenly become much more limited.

Empathy Means Not Going It Alone - Click To Read Article
When I feel overwhelmed, it's often because I forget that I'm not in competition with the rest of the world, but I always have the option to join in cooperation. That requires that I adjust my attitude toward the rest of the population of the world and see them as other 'selves' rather than threats. This awareness, this attitude, I call 'empathy'.

Don't Confuse Me with the Facts! - Click To Read Article
You can't 'fix' the midlife transition, even by 'fixing' yourself. It takes a depth of understanding, appreciation, and awareness.

Don't Select the Route before You Know the Destination - Click To Read Article
Goal-setting is a critically important skill that's necessary for success. However, it's not the most important one.

Discernment: Discovering a Vision for the Future - Click To Read Article
It would be so much easier, I think, if I could really be the 'master of my destiny'. Yet, deep down I know that I'm a part of something much bigger than myself. To the extent that I can join the flow of that 'something', I find an energy within that makes even the most difficult engagements go almost effortlessly. On the contrary, when I fight it, even the simplest tasks take a herculean effort. Discernment allows me to come into alignment not only with my own destiny, but it creates a synergy between me and the rest of the world.

Detecting the Deadly Detour - Click To Read Article
Courage and intelligence can be critical tools for success. However, ironically, at midlife, they can also represent a recipe for disaster. It's all about your openness to spiritual principles.

Distracted by Life - Click To Read Article
'The Frazzled Entrepreneur' isn't at all a myth: it's the fate of too many men who jump ship from their careers to become an entrepreneur without enough thought. Things may not be as urgent as you think!

Diversions, Distractions, and Drama - Click To Read Article
If the name of the game is 'Life', then 'uncertainty' is how it's played. All the other illusions are merely debilitating distractions along the way.

Derailing Your Train of Thought - Click To Read Article
However, contrary to a lot of people's belief, changes on the outside seldom create genuine change on the inside. That's why you can't buy your way to happiness, or eat your way, or pleasure your way, or even work your way there. Your midlife transition invites you to do the inside work first and, amazingly, the outside has a way of catching up with it.

Comprehending Our Frames of Perception - Click To Read Article
Most of the time, I think that I'm seeing the 'big picture' when I'm trying to make sense out of what I perceive. Yet, that's never the case. I'm always seeing things from just one limited viewpoint. That's my 'frame' from which I gather my knowledge and experience and on which I impose my interpretation. It's only when I realize how narrow that frame is that I can become ready to let in other perspectives and consider other alternatives.

Coping with Financial Catastrophe - Click To Read Article
There are few things outside ourselves that are actually under our control. How we deal with catastrophe shows our expertise in midlife mastery.

Could It Be Male Menopause? - Click To Read Article
There's definitely a range of elements that work together to create the midlife transition. Trying to 'cure' the physical side of it may defeat the purpose and leave you struggling to mature.

Commit or Die - Click To Read Article
The midlife transition for both men and women is no joke: it's a spiritual watershed point. What will you do when it happens to you?

Change Is a Life or Death Matter - Click To Read Article
People resist change, even when it's beneficial. Even when we try to make a difference, too often we do not succeed. Perhaps the problem lies in the starting point. Change begins when we begin to refocus our own awareness. All personal and professional change is an inside job.

Climbing Out of the Fog - Click To Read Article
We 'get it' that it's important to plan for the next stage of life. We may not realize how much effort it's going to take to find our way in the dark.

Can You Win the Uphill Midlife Battle? - Click To Read Article
The more some people try to cope with midlife issues, the harder it seems to make any headway. What's left? To chuck it all? To give up? Isn't there another option?

Change Your Partners, Dos-à-Dos - Click To Read Article
One of the most frequent side effects of the midlife transition (for both men and women) is divorce. Although common, it is often preventable.

Can We Talk? - Click To Read Article
It's a life-long task to learn to extract the meaning from the words, especially when that meaning has little to do with what the words mean. The task very often involves listening with the heart and blocking out the head — particularly in very intimate relationships.

Being Mindful of Who I Am - Click To Read Article
There are many things that I forget in the course of a day. The most frequent forgotten fact is my own identity. It's too easy to stockpile only my apparent shortcomings in the catacombs of my memory. Yet it is precisely the awareness of who I am that allows me to move forward in my personal and my professional life.

Building Your Emotional "Fallout Shelter" - Click To Read Article
There's only one simple (but not easy) approach that we can take that will shelter us from these emotional flash-backs from midlife trauma: beware of free-floating emotions! By that I mean that we can actually train ourselves to spot emotions that come out of nowhere and that seem . . . well . . . just wrong.

Anticipation: Proactive Responsibility - Click To Read Article
Waiting for the other shoe to drop is never a viable alternative. Using the full scope of our awareness to seek out and examine many of the possible consequences of our actions allows us to anticipate and avoid them. In business as in life, taking a proactive, responsible stance may not prevent the worst from happening, but it'll certainly allow us to be prepared for it. In other cases, preventive action can allow us to anticipate — and to avoid — costly mistakes.

Appreciation: Looking in the Rearview Mirror - Click To Read Article
Appreciation is more than taking a positive attitude about business and about life: it's also about looking back on how far you've come and enjoying the accomplishment. No matter how much attention you need to pay to the road ahead, you still sometimes have to look in the rearview mirror to appreciate where you've come from. What successful team avoids performing a 'postmortem' on even a well-played game? Perfection is a direction, not an achievable goal; progress is what we're after. Future progress only comes from a healthy examination of where we've been.

Are You Part of the Problem? - Click To Read Article
The midlife crisis not only causes individuals pain and confusion, but it also has more far-reaching effects. Much outside you depends on your internal condition.

Avoid Uncertainty at Your Own Risk - Click To Read Article
'Uncertainty avoidance' is one of the five scales that are used to define your cultural attitudes. High uncertainty avoidance can sabotage the midlife transition and prevent you from moving forward.

Barack Obama and the World at Midlife - Click To Read Article
Looking at men's place in the world of the 21st century, it seems that both are in the midst of an incredible transformation. Our work is to make sure they're successful!

Balancing Your Needs against Your Wants - Click To Read Article
Should your next career satisfy your basic economic needs, or should it satisfy the desires of your heart? Is there any way to strike a balance between them?

Anger and Gratitude Don't Mix - Click To Read Article
Living a life of gratitude requires one simple but profound change (that can really only happen at midlife): relinquishing anger. How's your track record?

Bah! Humbug! Here Come the Holidays! - Click To Read Article
The pressures of celebrating the 'perfect' holidays very often are the straws that break the back of many relationships. Especially at midlife, it's critically important to keep things in perspective.

Are You a Midlife Entrepreneur? - Click To Read Article
It's best to have explored carefully what it means to be an entrepreneur (and what it costs) before you become one.

Avoiding the 'Drop' One Day at a Time - Click To Read Article
Growing up — maturing — is a never-ending process. Decisions have to be made every day, and every one of them makes a difference!

Adults Ambushed by the 'More' Mentality - Click To Read Article
There's a paradoxical effect that afflicts us: when we sell our talents, they lose their meaning. Yet, we desire the rewards that financial success brings. What price are we willing to pay for it?

A Message from Your Empty Nest - Click To Read Article
An empty nest exposes the cracks and wrinkles in a relationship like nothing else. Midlife presents an opportunity to move your primary relationship into a whole new dimension.

57% of Layoffs Occur in Middle Age - Click To Read Article
Just when you're least able to cope with upsets in your life, when you're reevaluating everything, your career gets upended. It's all part of how the midlife game is played.

A Sneak Peek at the Future - Click To Read Article
When we look at the future, it appears as a very scary prospect: especially for men. Yet, every threat is just an opportunity in disguise.





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