Recent Articles From EvanCarmichael.com http://www.evancarmichael.com/ http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Its-Always-Something--If-Its-Not-One-Thing-Its-Another.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Its-Always-Something--If-Its-Not-One-Thing-Its-Another.html 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. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Punching-Yourself-Until-They-Give-Up.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Punching-Yourself-Until-They-Give-Up.html 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. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/The-Cost-of-Doing-Nothing.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/The-Cost-of-Doing-Nothing.html 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. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Paving-a-Road-to-Hell.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Paving-a-Road-to-Hell.html 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? http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/What-to-Do-When-Youre-in-Hot-Water.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/What-to-Do-When-Youre-in-Hot-Water.html 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. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Building-Your-Emotional-Fallout-Shelter.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Building-Your-Emotional-Fallout-Shelter.html 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. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/The-REAL-Secret-to-Success.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/The-REAL-Secret-to-Success.html 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. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Derailing-Your-Train-of-Thought.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Derailing-Your-Train-of-Thought.html 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. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/The-Courage-to-Change.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/The-Courage-to-Change.html The truth is that, when it comes to change, together we can do what we cannot do alone. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Should-I-Stay-or-Should-I-Go.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Work-Life/1818/Should-I-Stay-or-Should-I-Go.html 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!