To us Middle-Aged Men — What Are We Going to do For The Rest of Our Lives?
It’s funny isn’t it? We get to our mid thirties and we still feel young. Ten minutes later we are 40 and we feel old. Too old to be attractive and too old to start anything new.
We are bombarded with adverts aimed at those in their 20s. Social messaging that deifies youth.
We are told that if we are not young we are old which leaves us believing the BS. I am sure women feel this way too, but I can’t speak for them here.
Terrified of become invisible and irrelevant, we go and do all the wrong things. We leave our spouses, get personal trainers and hair transplants. Even worse, we give up and start the slow slide to obesity and ill health.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. We are not victims or has beens. We are alive, and I’m here to offer an alternative that is simple but hard. Hell, I’m no way further along on this than most people but I am determined.
Determined to not let age stop me from livng my best life. Determined to kill that destructive narrative with its ideas for how a middle age man should live.
The alternative is not self improvement or buying more stuff. It is radical authenticity and the adventures it will bring.
The authentic self that calls out the bullshit we are spoonfed and told to accept as our lot. The idea that we must be polite, low key and to not make a fuss. To die after being bled dry by taxes, fees and and quiet desperation.
The way to authenticity is to switch the meanings ascribe to acceptance. Complete acceptance of yourself, as you are and and a intolerance to the person the world wants you to be. Instead of the other way around. The way most people do it.
We accept that we are getting older, heavier and less physically capable. We accept that our hair may fail us and so will our penises sometimes.
When we accept ourselves fully we destroy the images we used to worship, that society worships and we free ourselves to live a life on our own terms, whatever that truly means to you.
