While midlife is primarily a time for accepting that some dreams will never be fulfilled, it is also a time to create new dreams based on what you now know about yourself. It is important to grieve those that have been lost and acknowledge their passing. You may have invested many hours in working towards them, and now realizing that you will never be a brilliant concert pianist or an X games gold medalist, may be a significant realization.
In the place of the things that time or talent have overruled, you now have the opportunity to build new dreams, and this time you get to choose the ones you want! You may have tried to be a scientist for your parents, but now you accept that you are entirely right brained and can now be the sculptor you always wanted to be. If you decide to go back to school, don’t be surprised by the number of people your age you find there!
As you go through this transition, you may also find that the friends you had share fewer of your interests, so it can be a time to chose to widen your social network. With the internet is is so easy to find groups of people interested in almost everything.
If you live close to a major urban area you might try MeetUp and see what ongoing meetings are being offered in your area. You may be pleasantly surprised by how many groups specifically have ‘boomers’ or ‘midlife’ in their title!
Some cities also have over 40 groups at MeetIn and these events are generally one off, for a specific time and event, whereas MeetUp.com tends to have ongoing monthly meetings for different interests.
