Becoming the Best “You” – You Can Be

By Carol Doyel –

As a woman 50+ this is a season that many of us are faced with our own mortality. As we age we face the issues that go along with getting old. I’ve noticed that many of us hit what I’ll refer to as the “peak” years, which I have personally experienced and can only describe as something like getting a second wind.

I can’t quite explain what the “peak” is exactly, but as I thought about many women I know who have hit that point pre or post 50, what I’ve noticed is that something happens to them. They begin trying new things, they leave jobs or careers that they’ve worked in for years, they start new businesses, they buy things and do things that they might not have when they were younger, they often make significant lifestyle changes; they start running, lose weight, change their hairstyle, etc.…and it occurred to me this is what we use to refer to as a “mid-life crisis”.

I don’t like the term mid-life crisis, but I have to admit, we go through significant changes physically and emotionally during our “mid-life”.  Years ago when we talked about a “mid-life crisis”  it usually had to do with a man who when faced with losing his mojo would go out and buy a sports car – like a red Corvette.

What prompts this change?  I think it may have something to do with the years of fulfilling expected roles as daughters, wives, mothers, employees – often married for many years, parenting for 18 or more years, years in the same job or profession, doing what others expect us to do!  Then something happens, we become empty nester’s, we hit middle age and faced with growing old,  we have what I describe as an awakening.

When faced with being put out to pasture, we can become desperate to hold on to our youth, to the point of obsession with our appearance, weight, wrinkles, etc.  We fear getting old and the idea of becoming old looking. In our desperateness we begin looking for the magic potion, concoctions, procedures, programs, supplements, the latest and greatest diet, anything to maintain our youthful appearance or to try to get it back. But chasing after youthfulness is like running backwards for something we can never reach.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with pursuing a healthy lifestyle, or investing in improving ourselves, learning, growing, and working at becoming the best “You” – you can be. But there are some things we have to accept, and as we do, and we become comfortable with who we are today we may discover the best is yet to come!