Why are people caught in a ‘daily midlife crisis’ today?

I read an interesting article the other day that I found concerning, not just for its topic, but for how it reflects the state of our lives in 2025.

Titled, “The midlife crisis is dead. All hail the daily midlife crisis,” it was written by blogger Justin Poythress.

By the photo of him accompanying the blog, Justin has a few years to go before he will qualify for the Forward From 50 community. But, he apparently is dealing with lots of folks who are struggling to find purpose and meaning in their lives.

Justin calls himself a pastor and writer seeking to restore rest and wonder to worn out people. I suspect he has no trouble finding people to help.

A lot of us are simply “worn out.” The struggle is relentless. As technology improves to “make our lives better,” we find our lives moving at a pace that keeps increasing. It’s like being on someone else’s treadmill and they are taking great pleasure in increasing the speed and pitch of the track.

Justin said the “midlife crisis” today belongs to all of us, all the time — not just to men in their fifties who leave their families and buy motorcycles.

The reason we feel so beat up is that we are constantly playing the comparison game with others. We compare ourselves to the online “influencers” who seem to have it all together, just as we compare ourselves to people within our own circles.

Social media certainly doesn’t help by allowing anyone to create and portray and idyllic life, whether or not the person is really living that way.

After suggesting he experiences a crisis at some point every week, Justin identified questions that he frequently asks himself. Do you ever ponder these:

• What am I doing?
• Should I have been somebody different?
• Did I miss some crucial decision years back or a turn in the road I should have taken?
• Have I wasted my life?

I know I ask many of those questions, too. But, when I do, I find my faith shifting away from God’s plan toward my own desires.

Ironically, it’s when I am venturing out into a wilderness of my own creation that I struggle the most. At that point, I need to bring myself back into God’s will — his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2)

Everyone has bad days, but if you are finding that you have more bad days than good, perhaps you are out of God’s will for your life.

Perhaps he is nudging you toward a more fulfilling life, but you’re too worried about the “what ifs” of life to step into the direction God is leading you.

Sometimes, we are too deep into a situation that we can’t clearly see any options. That’s when we feel trapped in a life of our own making.

Fortunately, it is possible to escape that rut and find a more fulfilling life. Yet, it often requires the help of a trusted friend, or even a hired coach, to ask us tough questions and insist on honest answers.

Like Romans 12:2 suggests, we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. It is only AFTER we renew our mind that we can test and approve of what God’s will for our lives really is.

If you seem to be living in a daily whatever-stage-of-life crisis of hopelessness, dread and fear of the future, may I suggest that you renew your mind. Share your concerns with God and a trusted friend, then be quiet and listen with an open mind.

You might hear the answer which has been eluding you because you are caught on that unrelenting treadmill.

If you need help breaking that cycle of thinking, I’d be happy to have a conversation at no cost. Schedule a time on the Forward From 50 website at https://calendly.com/greggerber/greg_gerber_conversation