In podcast Episode 19 – Reaching Midlife and Handling Life Changes (Bending Your Knees), Angela and Patti share about reaching midlife and handling what comes your way. To listen to the full podcast episode, click below:
Angela, tell us a little about the podcast title, and Bending Your Knees?
We thought about this topic a while back, but I thought about it when I had trouble bending my knees after surgery. It was a shock after being flexible most of my life; I couldn’t bend my knees easily. Everything about surgery was a shock, but also in recovery, I experienced a lot of feelings, not being able to be like I used to be, and there was fear about the future and uncertainty about who I was going to become now.
Midlife is a critical time to look at your life and see what you cannot do. Not so that you pine about “being old” or look at the past as something that you’ve lost – although you may have a period of grieving.
After or during grieving, it’s important and valuable to take stock and reflect on the results of your life thus far.
How do you feel about your life?
Reflecting on your life constructively will help get you out of the cycle of thinking and feeling that you have lost something or that your life has amounted to nothing. And will help you start to see –
❤️ What is your life about?
What was the purpose of all that running around, learning, working, not working, having kids, being sick, being healthy – etc. –
❤️ What was it all for? Bending the knee reflects flexibility and humility. In my case, I had setbacks, such as getting a little better, only to get sick or weak again. That taught me to do things differently to meet my needs and energy better. Mid-life is a great time to realize, there is only so much you can do – so how can you do it better, with less energy, and less ego about how you look, how young you are – it’s also a time to measure what success for you is? Is success about how much money you have? Or is it how happy you are?
Patti tells us about what you found that stops people from embracing the possibility of change in mid-life.
I have spoken to many people who feel they are stuck in a dead-end job. When Sunday comes around, they dread thinking about going to work the next morning. On Monday mornings, they hit the snooze button multiple times and force themselves out of bed. On the way to work, they push themselves with positive affirmations or the opposite with “I hate my job” self-talk.
🦋 Do you feel like you could do your job in your sleep?
🦋 Are there no advancement opportunities where you work?
🦋 Do you feel hateful and resentful when you walk through your workplace?
🦋 Do you get any acknowledgment for a job well done?
🦋 Am I learning any new aspects of my position?
🦋 Are my job duties challenging to me?
🦋 Do I enjoy going to work every day?
🦋 Am I motivated and striving to increase my productivity level?
🦋 Do I feel I am making a difference?
🦋 Are my coworkers positive at work?
🦋 Am I positive at work?
You may feel stuck in a dead-end job if you answered no to these questions.
What are some options to improve the career situation?
Use daily affirmations to get you through the day. Patti created some work-life balance affirmation cards. These cards are good to use for any day-in and day-out work or home situations.
Work-Life Balance Affirmations Cards
❤️ What do you want our world to be?
Answer this question on the Facebook group page for Building Better Relationships at Home and Work with Angela and Patti: What are the things, experiences, and joys that you really, really would like to experience?
Angela and I would like to thank you for following our podcast!