The girl who cried, wolf?

In the past, there were times, I thought I was going through a mid life crisis. I feel like I have been there, done that, when it comes to emphatically expressing how I need to run wild, give it all up once before having to really give it all up. Cried about the dropping metabolism, the grey strays and wondered about one night stands. But each time, it was a phase of outbursts, until the next important thing in life grabbed my attention.

Looking back, I think I grossly misunderstood the meaning of the words midlife and crisis. It is not a phase that comes and goes. But a continuous process that one must learn to live and thrive with. Perhaps those phases where I felt anxious were precursors, trying to give me hints regarding what I might consider important in life later on. But I was quite oblivious to those signals then.

Thinking about it now, acceptance is the strongest word that emerges from all those signals that I recieved in the past. What would the 40 year old me tell the 30 year old me from the past, I wonder? Would it perhaps be the same as what the 60 year old me from the future would tell the person that I am today?

• Learn to accept your true self without apology. 
• Learn to apologise where you believe you hurt someone's feelings. 
• Identify what gives you real pleasure. 
• Spend time visualising the person you want to be. 
• Learn to persevere for what you truly want. 
• Play fair, lose graciously, win humbly. 
• Times when you think there is no point in life, live for the many small joys that you have experienced in the past.
• Endure the difficult times, and keep moving until the next joyous moment. 
• Forgive yourself when you don't meet your own expectation. 
• Death is a shortcut to nothing. It maybe an equalizer, but being alive is the differentiator. 
• As long as you are alive, the heart is feeling, the mind is ticking, something may change. You can change. 
• Cry when you are sad.