I know loads of people who’ve started thinking about the need for change – in their careers, their personal lives, their personal or spiritual development – as they approach a milestone birthday. Of course some people don’t do anything about it at the time (even though the quiet whisper, the gentle knocking on the door doesn’t go away… ) but many do: changing jobs, taking a career break, going travelling, pursuing personal development paths through things like coaching or NLP, starting to study again, working for themselves, opening up new horizons…
This is often put down as a mid-life crisis but I think it’s more illuminating to think about it in relation to the "milestones" that precipitate this change.
Milestones (as per the thesaurus) are significant events in our lives. Events that occur at a critical time. But the meaning comes from their original, practical purpose. Stone posts at the side of the road that show us distances.
Constructed both to reassure the traveller that the proper path is being followed and to indicate distance travelled.
And I kind of think that’s what we’re doing when we approach a milestone birthday. Looking back at the distance travelled. And checking that the proper path is being followed.
And if, when you check, you find that you’re not… well, I for one found myself doing quite a lot of stuff in the milestone year that’s just finished – left my job/career, trained in coaching and NLP, went to volunteer and study in Mexico for 3 months, started a new business, had my first book published…
Now I’m at the end of that 12 months I feel good that I’m back on the right path, and proud of the distance travelled. I’m also quite relieved that my most recent birthday wasn’t a milestone, and I’ve a good few years before the next one – because now I can just relax and see how the story unfolds…