Life crises

By Daniel Francis

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You tell yourself by X age you will have attained all these specific things. The plan is flawless and with all that time available between now and that age, you will, without a doubt, have attained these things.

You’ve seen others of that same age bracket attain the same things at roughly that same age, so why should you expect any less. Not only will you attain these certain things, but you will have achieved some major life milestones.

Maybe what I am describing above looks like owning a house, buying a car, having the perfect job, or marriage. Maybe your business is booming, or you have saved that crucial amount to go on that spectacular trip. You’ve made all these plans and they must be attained by X age.

The years roll by, and your timeline has shrunk considerably. You are edging close and closer to that dreaded age. Dreaded because you have not attained half the things you said you would attain or reached half the milestones you said you would reach.

You look left and right. Your peers all seem to be exactly where they are meant to be, living their best lives but you are stuck in this place, this terrible place where you are behind. You begin feeling guilty, annoyed with yourself, and downright angry that you are in this position.

You finally reach X age, and you think to yourself, “Am I a failure?”.

This, my friend, is the dreaded life crisis. Depending on your age, you might be experiencing a ‘Quarter-Life Crisis’, a ‘Third-Life Crisis’, or even a ‘Mid-Life Crisis’.

It is completely normal, but it is an uncomfortable period to live through, to say the least. But why God are you not helping me achieve all that I set out to achieve?

Honestly speaking our plan may not be God’s plan. How does the saying go? “We make plans and God laughs.” God has His plans for us, and we cannot even begin to imagine where His plans will take us.

I’ve experienced a quarter-life crisis and now I am currently living through my ‘third-life crisis’. I was hoping that I would skip this crisis but here I am. At the tender age of 31, where I feel like I am supposed to have things mostly figured out, but I was completely wrong.

My business plans feel more haphazard than placing a bet, I have negative money on some days (yes, negative money is a thing) and if things weren’t already difficult enough, I recently tore my Achilles tendon playing basketball. If you see me moving with pace in my crutches, feel free to stop me to sign my leg cast.

When you are in a crisis period, you feel like the sky is falling. You wonder why you must continue living life on hard mode and you wonder why the devil ‘doh leave yuh alone!’.

But much like the mysteries of life, you never know what lesson God is trying to teach you or where He is trying to lead you. Besides learning that standing on one leg for long periods is like an extreme sport and that people act as though they have never seen a tall man in crutches, I have noted the little lessons that God sees it necessary that I should learn in my crisis period.

I’ve become acutely aware of my lack of patience and monumental aversion to asking for help. Maybe God knows that in my next chapter of life, I need to develop these attributes to achieve His goals for me.

If you are currently in your quarter, third, mid or even three-quarter life crisis stop to think about what God is trying to open your eyes to during this period. I like to think that God gives us a window of perspective when He hurls us into adversity.

Because it may only be through diversity that we attain the heights that He needs us to attain. Pay close attention to your life and even though you might feel like the sky is falling, you may be one step away from greatness.

Thank God later.

Daniel Francis is a millennial helping other millennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a Self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.

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