As life expectancy increases, changes in middle age will become an existential necessity for many people. Some of these changes will be internally driven. Individuals may feel that their life is no longer satisfying and that they want new challenges or they may decide that it’s time to branch out. Other midlife changes will be triggered by external events: An individual may face an irresolvable conflict with their companion, their children, or other close relationships and may find themselves alone, or feeling alone during this time.

Despite the necessity and frequency of your life’s changes, midlife (roughly the ages from 43 to 62) remains a very difficult period and one for which people are, on the whole, lamentably ill prepared.

Midlife is exciting because it is a time when people have the opportunity to reexamine even their most basic assumptions.

We experience a great deal of freedom once we’ve established our identity. Midlife is our opportunity to pursue the interests and relationships we associate with our sense of self. Insecurities wane, and confidence in work and outside interests increase during midlife.

This is a time when we become comfortable in our own skin, with our personalities; we know what we like and don’t like. This can mean identifying with parenting, a career, a faith, or hobbies.