It’s okay to screw up when no one is watching.
There’s an idea I hear often in writer/content creator circles – make your mistakes in the beginning while learning the craft. Experiment, tweak, play around, find your voice, and discover your niche. You have nothing to lose.
Because no one is watching.
The world is your playground because there’s not an audience who expects anything. The same is true with life and aging.
We screw up as kids and no one really cares. The costs are usually low and everyone expects us to make mistakes. That’s how we learn. I know a 1983 Ford Mustang can’t drive up and over a massive sand pile. It was a cheap lesson that’s stuck with me for 40 years. But who cares?
It’s fine. No one is watching.
Men hit midlife and think they can act like punk high school boys again, sowing oats that are long dead. But everyone is watching, and the costs are high.
The weight of future generations lies in the balance of your decisions.
Is that overdramatic? I don’t think so. A midlife crisis leads to porn or affairs or both, which leads to divorce, broken homes, and damaged kids.
Consider these stats about the effects of divorce on kids:
- Twice as likely to have a mental disorder
- Three times more likely to consider suicide
- 1.5 to 2 times more likely to live in poverty and engage in risky sexual behavior
- 8% lower probability of completing high school, a 12% lower probability of college attendance, and an 11% lower probability of college completion
Scarred kids become scarred spouses and parents without healthy patterns to follow. Children of divorce are 35% more likely to have a divorce of their own.
Rinse and repeat.
Christian men aren’t immune to midlife crises. Thirty percent of Christian marriages end in divorce. Men, it’s time to stop acting like boys. We have too much at stake. Our wives, sons, and daughters need us. Who’s going to protect, lead, and teach them if we don’t?
I’ve written a book that details a strategic plan to help you. It’s called Stronger Down the Stretch: Surviving Midlife Without a Crisis.
It’s available on Amazon and Gumroad.
I talk more in-depth about how men can be proactive in growing stronger in mind, body, and spirit because healthy men don’t suffer midlife crises.
Men, count the costs. Everyone is watching and that’s okay if we’re growing stronger down the stretch.
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