Warning: Going to sleep on Sunday will cause Monday
“By the way, why do I secretly feel this Monday morning syndrome?”
Same jobs for years? Good payslips, but a promotion could have motivated you better? Don’t feel the same energy as in your 20’s that can drive for excellence so needed for success? Not enough energy and ambition to climb out of this stagnant situation, while it’s too scary to quit a job? I understand, your neighbor is unemployed, and you have the whole family to support!
Burned out, boreout, feeling stuck… Yes, you’ll not going to get over it easily! Because the mid-life crisis touches millions.
According to the Harvard Business Review, “On average, life satisfaction is high when people are young, then starts to decline in the early 30s, bottoming out between the mid-40s and 50s”. These career woes hit “senior-level executives as well as blue-collar workers and stay-at-home parents”.
You’ve probably read a lot of tips and tricks to overcome this “inconvenient” crisis that suddenly appears in your life. You’ve tried to search for jobs, motivated yourself… They do not seem to work so much. What to do?
Going to the hall of the clouds
Well, prepare yourself for this inedited solution. A zen master might advise you to go to “the Hall of the clouds”. Undo, in Japanese, “The Hall of the Clouds”, is the room where meditation, zazen, is practiced. Indeed, he wants you to come back to your “original mind, awaken to everything, blank and emptiness”. (Taiun JP Faure)
“Look, for example, at a very young child who was still in his mother’s womb a short time ago. This little child, in no time at all, learns something extremely wonderful: language. Only by himself, he learns to speak, because his mind is empty of any concept, any expectation, any formatting” (Kusen, Kanshoji)
To restart a new passion and get out of the rut, we might need to find a way to meet again this state of “awakening”: Learn to live again like a young child.
Aspiration to the infinite
The state of mid-life crisis, feeling stuck, burned out, lack of passion… happens when our mind voices out its needs of “self-realization”.
If you remember the hierarchy of needs, you will see that most of us, when the basic physiological, safety, love and esteem needs are met, we yearn for something higher, the “self-realization”.
And it’s a great thing!
Have you ever felt immerged with a wish to do bigger things? At around the late 30’s or 40’s, most people start looking into what they have gone through. College, a job, a family, life seems to be fulfilled… Now what? Who I am going to be? How to make the rest of my life meaningful?
Going back to our original mind is “how we strengthen our vital momentum, not only our energy but also our aspiration, aspiration to the infinite, to the absolute” (Kusen, Kanshoji)
The state of the “mid-career crisis” is a good momentum. It brings us a chance to meet our “self-actualization”.
Right mindset comes when time
When I started my digital business, I unconsciously had this “aspiration for the infinite”. After recovering from burnout, feeling stuck, I had this absolute need to change. I wanted to do bigger things, to imagine my life differently, in 5 years, or 20 years.
And indeed, now on the journey, I am amazed about how entrepreneurship brings me as an opportunity to grow. An “employee” mindset is where you do what others tell you to do, to earn a salary. And an “entrepreneur” mindset is when you set up a thing to realize something you truly care about. This shift was enormous for me personally.
The soul of the world is nourished by people’s happiness. When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it
Paulo Coelho
If you are among people who long for bigger things, probably you might feel this mid-career woes for now. All good, things are on the way!
Fulfilled from the inside
Burned out, having no passion, not feeling who we are… A change is necessary. However, there is one thing that might be helpful to keep in mind. Once you’ve changed to somewhere else (another job, another environment…), fulfillment is not automatically ensured.
It’s an illusion that there is some other place, job, or life that can rescue us if our heart is full of despair.
So let us together practice Thich Nhat Hanh‘s mantra: “I have arrived, I am home”. Wherever we are in our journey, we are in the right place. And once our heart is full of joy from the inside, everything is possible.
The universe functions in the mode of awakening and from eternity. It has never encountered a dead end.
Taiun JP Faure
Mid-career woes, burned out, boreout, feeling stuck, full of despair, we are often lost: “What should I do? Where should I go?”. It is important to make room for a totally open mind, the mind that understands things unconsciously. Find a way to meet again this state of “awakening”, and aspire for the infinite. Do you want to start with me today, to firstly cultivate joy from the inside? I believe that the universe will conspire for what needs to happen.
Read more:
6 easy things you can do daily to cultivate joy