If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Have you ever wondered why achieving your long-term goals often leaves you feeling more empty than satisfied?
- What if the secret to overcoming a midlife crisis isn't about changing your external circumstances, but shifting how you value your time?
- Are you curious about how centuries-old philosophical wisdom can provide a practical roadmap for dealing with the regrets of middle age?
Listen to Midlife — Free Audiobook
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Key Takeaways from Midlife
- Discover how 2,500 years of philosophical wisdom can help you brave the realities of aging and navigate midlife without a crisis.
- Understand the scientifically backed 'U-shaped' curve of lifetime happiness so you can recognize midlife dissatisfaction as a natural, temporary phase.
- Learn why aiming directly at your own happiness often leads to misery, and see how focusing on outside passions naturally generates joy as a byproduct.
- Recognize the danger of the 'ameliorative' trap, and learn to make time for hobbies and simple pleasures that have nothing to do with fixing problems.
- Overcome the angst of missed opportunities by accepting that life's choices involve 'incommensurable' values, making the feeling of missing out completely inevitable.
Learning Tools
Reinforce what you learned from Midlife
Mind Map
Midlife
Understanding the Midlife Crisis
Reality of Middle Age
The U-Shaped Curve
The Paradox of Happiness
Indirect Pursuit
Non-Ameliorative Value
Missing Out and Regret
Incommensurable Values
Reframing Mistakes
Dealing with Death
The Symmetry Argument
Unserious Desires
Loving the Process
The Emptiness of Goals
Telic vs. Atelic Activities
Shifting Focus
Quiz — Test Your Understanding
Question 1 of 7
According to economists David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, how do our levels of happiness generally change over the course of our lifetimes?
Midlife — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Recommendation
Chapter 2: Seeing midlife as a period of crisis is fairly recent, yet there are compelling reasons to think the view is right.
Chapter 3: Aim straight for happiness, and you will inevitably miss it.
Chapter 4: The sense of missing out is unavoidable in a world crowded with conflicting values.
Chapter 5: There are strong reasons not to regret supposedly mistaken decisions.
Chapter 6: Philosophy can help us face death well.
Chapter 7: Learn to cherish the process, not the goal.
Midlife Summary & Overview
Midlife (2017) is a philosophical guide to navigating the troubles that middle age can present. Drawing on thinkers from ancient Rome to nineteenth-century England, it offers gentle solace in the face of midlife’s woes.
Who Should Listen to Midlife?
- Middle-aged people on the cusp of a midlife crisis
- Those with relatives or friends past their mid-thirties
- Anyone interested in applying philosophy to life
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