Even Iggy Pop needs a purpose for continuing in life. In fact, one of the most common symptoms of dissatisfaction is feeling purposeless, feeling hopeless, thinking things cannot change, certainly not by your action. Not a fan of making blanket statements. But it is commonly understood that one of the best means of fighting depression and listlessness is to find something you can do, and slowly build on that. It might be taking a walk for an hour each morning around the local park. It could be starting to read books again. Then are many things you might feel potential with.
Madonna is keeping our interest with her politics.
But that internal fire can sometimes leave for other reasons. We might simply feel that now we’re a little older than we used to be, we shouldn’t invest in our passions as fruitfully as we had before. Well, that would be absolutely incorrect. Age is just a number. It could be that revivifying your passions and looking to the future can help you once again kindle that internal fire.
Let’s consider how that might work:
Consider Why The Fire Left
It can be important to immediately start working on falling in love with life again. But first, it’s important to consider why that might have left in the first place. This can help you gain context to further take care of yourself, or prevent a similar issue from happening again. So, why did the fire leave?
Did a relative pass away, leaving you very sad and unable to truly process your emotions? Was it a break-up? Or was it that you’re simply not interested in that which used to inspire you? It’s not uncommon for those who become a master at a certain type of craft to feel like they want to try something new, and feel what it’s like to become a novice again, learning with passion as they find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
It might be something hard to deal with, it might be something you simply need to brush off. But sometimes, finding why the fire left can be the first step in your journey.
Challenge Yourself Anew
As humans, we all have to deal with some form of challenge. It might be the hardship of starting a new career, of building your reputation well. It might be the challenge of overcoming a personal hurdle, or perhaps a sustained effort towards something new.
The biggest mistake you can ever make when you enter your mature years is thinking that just because you’re no longer 20, taking a sustained effort to something constructive is no longer worth the effort. That is simply not true, and will never be true, no matter how many years pass.
But what might you find as fuel for that internal fire? What could potentially help you along a path that sustains you, and holds your interest? Do you need to follow something familiar to you, or can you learn new skills entirely?
Well, it could be a contextual matter. For example, studying an online BBA could potentially help you gain more competence when opening that small business you hope to run, giving you the tools to actualize your dream. You might decide to start training in a physical sport, so you can enjoy playing with a local league table. It might simply be that you hope to finally sit down and get your novel ideas to paper, after thinking over them for 30 years. No matter what you feel necessary – let it be something that sustains you. You have likely already proven yourself during the course of your life. So do something not because others think it wise for you, but because you feel that natural inclination. It has to be more sustaining than the feeling of you doing nothing.
Another Rite Of Passage
We often think of a rite of passage as something that transitions you from youth to adulthood. We think of a young tribe member going on their first hunt, for example. That might seem like an archaic example, but it goes to show just how strong this idea has been throughout all human cultures, and just how many people have embodied it over time.
But why should that only be limited to the boundary between youth and adulthood? Surely that’s a good marker, but we go through many changes in our lifetime. The ‘you’ at twenty wouldn’t recognize the ‘you’ at forty, and likely vice versa. So why not go through another passage when we hit sixty? It’s important to consider. This is likely you at your intellectual prime, your wisdom and understanding of the world, however humble, is likely as fine tuned as it can ever be.
So why not consider your own? Perhaps you might walk the Camino de Santiago, a beautiful pilgrimage taking place in the South of France and transitioning to the North of Spain. The journey itself could be considered a meditative journey of significance that you might find yourself renewed by taking. It might be that you simply wish to travel somewhere with your family. Perhaps you wish to retire but then take on a part time job that you find most enjoyable, without a real thought concerning your income.
All of this could kickstart your fire once more. But don’t simply take our word for it. Find something yourself that you would feel enraptured by. It might even be that you:
Give Love A Chance Again
Now, this following advice might not apply to everyone. It could be that you’re quite happy in your marriage, your relationship or solitude. The idea that we need to have a romantic partner can often lend itself to toxic attitudes. But on top of that, we can sometimes find ourselves wishing for it and not permitting ourselves to take that chance. We might think ourselves too old to once again fall in love and allow everything to feel as new, as we might have once found this appropriate.
If this applies to you – remember, love can come at any time, from anyone. It might just be that giving love a chance again could be the thing that truly ignites your soul as you had hoped. Of course, don’t force it. But don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. And for heaven’s sake, stop putting yourself down. You likely have so much more to share than you give yourself credit for.
It could also be that after the sad passing of your partner, you feel as though you should never love again. Many people go through this set of very self-limiting emotions. But remember, you deserve happiness. We wouldn’t like to overstep our mark here, but it’s likely that’s what your partner would have wanted for you, too. We in no way wish to tell you how to behave or think about your love life. But sometimes, being a little more open-minded could lead you to renewed internal health.
Take Care Of Yourself
Again, those who are mature in years can often start to think that their issues do not matter. They might think that they’ve had a good run, so perhaps complaining about struggling isn’t the best course of action. But that is never true. You deserve to care for your mental and physical health as much as the next person. Understand that. Visit your healthcare provider as necessary. Make your issues heard. It’s important for you to do that, if only so you can keep your self-care as a priority – as it absolutely deserves to be, from top to bottom.
Is Something Dragging You Down?
It could be, that despite all of your efforts and practical application of our above advice, that you still feel like something is missing. This is where it’s important to reflect on the matters of your life more keenly. Is something dragging you down? What might that be?
It could be that you feel great, until your son arrives to come and visit you. It might be that your daughter in law seems strangely dismissive of you, and seems to criticize everything you do for her. That might make you feel like less of a person, and then you start to dread seeing your son or his family. Of course, this is a highly specific example, but it can show how social issues might drag you down to the point that you feel most uncomfortable.
It could be that a rational discussion getting things out into the open could help you move past an issue. It might be that cutting yourself off from those in your circle who are less than healthy for you is important. And sometimes, it could be that ‘resetting’ in a way that means the most to you could help you develop yourself and begin to walk the path you feel most appropriate.
