But, as I’ve studied it and connected with nearly 5,000 alums who’ve experienced our MEA programs, I’ve come to see midlife more as a chrysalis than a crisis, a time of liberating liquefaction that leads to feeling more free in the second half of our adult life. 

So you can imagine how emboldened I felt when I read this scientific online magazine article on “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Your Midlife Crisis.” I loved that the journalist asked, “Is the midlife crisis even real?” She suggests, as I and many other sociologists do, that midlife is a marathon, lasting from our “early 30s…way into your 70s.” 

The dreaded midlife crisis is the butt of so many jokes -- but it’s actually really serious. I lost five male friends to suicide - ages 42-52 - between 2008-2010, so I know it’s a phenomenon, but what the pop culture press doesn’t tell you is that after you suffer through the “midlife unraveling” (as Brené Brown calls it), we get happier and happier. Rather than midlife being the doormat to death, it’s a threshold to a newfound sense of freedom that offers so many more options than your parents even imagined.

I’m excited to be leading my “Learning to Love Midlife” workshop in Baja July 15-20. Sign up soon as, due to the popularity of my new bestselling book with the same name, this workshop tends to sell out quickly.

-Chip