Feeling Lost At Midlife? How To Reconnect With Your Authentic Self

Craig Stanland
2 min readOct 3, 2024

Who’s that in the mirror?

Far too many of us reach a point at midlife where we’ve traveled so far from ourselves that we’ve become unrecognizable to ourselves.

Life doesn’t feel right; things feel off.

We look at what we’ve created, take inventory, and ask,

“Is this all there is?”

Often crushed to feel that,

“Yes, this is all there is. I’m too old, I missed my chance, I’m (insert title here), and that’s all I know how to do.”

We must understand that the journey away from ourselves was paved with others’ opinions, shoulds, and expectations.

That’s why we feel off; we followed a life path that wasn’t ours; it wasn’t authentic to who we are and who we’re meant to be.

We must also understand that the journey away from ourselves was paved with the very things that will bring us back to ourselves — our fears, insecurities, doubts, and beliefs.

We followed others’ life paths because we were afraid to forge our own paths and risk being seen and heard for who we are.

Whether that be a writer, painter, composer, start-up creator, or teacher, whatever we’ve spent a lifetime running from…

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Craig Stanland

From corporate success to federal prison, I share my journey to rediscover joy, meaning, and purpose. Join me in reinventing your extraordinary second act!