There are many aspects to the life of a middle aged man but everyone is different and different circumstances affect people in different ways. But what remains static is how, at this stage of life, middle aged men start to view the world.

It’s at this age that attitude can take two distinct paths –

Loathing Life

The questioning and wondering at life’s purpose, measured against our lot in life, starts to harden the attitude. Things become very black and white, with our opinions becoming hard and fast about what is right and what is wrong. You start to look for reasons that you have not achieved as you think you should have. You look for people or situations to blame. You live in the past and blame others (the government, the immigrants, the Muslims, the stupid woman next door) for all life’s troubles, and you ignore the future for fear of continued perceived failure.

Living Life

You question life and the way the world works. You acknowledge that the world is unfair and that suffering seems to be the normal state of play. But you start to realise that happiness is personal. It is an attitude and a state of mind. You accept that you have influence but not control over external circumstances and happenings in the world, and that if you think things around you need to work out for the best for you to be happy, then you are doomed to loathing life….and that is not how you want to feel and live for the rest of your life.

So you start the search for meaning and you decide to make a difference in your own world, with the things you can control, with the people you love, and live your life to the fullest in the best way you can.

Both Loathing and Living life are self-fulfilling attitudes. The more you travel down one path the more entrenched you become in that way of living……………

Are you Loathing Life or Living Life?