Connor Beaton (speaker) explains that many men experience midlife crises because they habitually 'do the right things' (take responsibility, meet others' expectations) expecting desired outcomes; in midlife they realize those actions haven’t produced the connection, depth, or fulfillment they wanted, prompting crisis and re-evaluation.
A lot of men have some type of a midlife crisis because how they have been acting for the majority of their life up until the crisis is I'll do the right things, I'll take on the responsibility, I'll be who people want me to be, and hopefully the right outcome will happen back, right? So if I act right, the outcome will be right. And in the middle passage, you very quickly begin to realize that that's not true. And so what ends up happening is they take on a whole bunch of responsibilities that they don't necessarily care about. They take on a whole bu of pressure, and suddenly they wake up in their 30s, 40s, or 50s and realize that they have been acting right in the way that society or their parents or their wife or their girlfriend or whoever has told them to act. But it hasn't led to the outcomes that they actually want. It hasn't led to the connection or the depth or the fulfillment or the satisfaction that they've actually desired.
How to Raise Strong, Unshakable Boys in Today's Culture, with Dr. Shefali Tsabary
