I Love Don Week 2025: The Halfway Point

Can you believe we’re halfway through “I Love Don Week?”  Just wanted to share a few updates. Oh, like this … you people must be playing a cat and mouse game and you have something big planned as a surprise. Because so far … nothing. Well, I did get a card in the mail from my Aunt with two $5 scratch and win tickets and I won $10 … so that’s something.

Maybe I need to repost the list. Here’s the list:  Stuff I Want

What’s that you ask? How have I been spending my “I Love Don Week?” I’m glad you asked. Doing a lotta reflecting. Journaling. Planning. Evaluating the first half of 2025 and making plans for the rest of 2025. One thing I’ve been thinking about (again) is the concept of a Mid-Life Crisis.

My Definition of a Mid-Life Crisis

I’ve philosophized about this before and how we should define our “mid-life.”  Some might say, OK, if you’re planning on being average, and for a modern male, the average life expectancy is 75.8 years … so some might say “mid-life” is 37.9 (half of 75.8). But I theorize that “mid-life” for someone living to 75.8 years is 48.9.  Why?  Because, I argue, for most of us, “life” doesn’t really get started until about 22-years-old. I say this because the first 22-years, if we’re lucky and blessed, is pretty much planned for us and doesn’t differ much from person to person. First, you’re a small child and helpless. Then you go to elementary, middle, and high school and 62.4% of high school graduates head off to college. Meaning, for 62.4% of people, life for the first 22 or 23 years of life looks like everyone else’s and, again, if you’re lucky, it’s sorta like you’re checking boxes.

“Life”, according to my theory, therefore starts at 23.  If I live to an average age (75.8 years), the “mid-life” is 49.4.  The math is 75.8 – 22 =  53.8 years.

• 53.8 = “Life”
• “Life” divided by 2 = 26.9 years.
• 22 (the start of “life) + 26.9 years = 48.9 years.
• 48.9 years is “mid-life” for a dude who’ll live to 75.8.

But I want to live to 85. I’m 52. I’m working harder than ever to fix things I’ve been doing wrong and control the things I can control with my health (weight, heart rate, sleep, mental state, diet, exercise). Nothing I can do if I have some bad luck and get sick with something, but I’ll hope to get lucky and pair that with the stuff I can control.

So, you ask, if I’m going to live to 85 … what’s my “mid-life” and when is my “crisis” justified?

• 85 years – 22 years = 63 years.
• 63 years divided by 2 = 31.5 years.
• 22 (start of “life”) + 31.5 years = 53.5 years.

As I march toward my 52nd birthday (this Friday, btw …2 shopping days left), by my math, I’m still a year-and-a-half away from “mid-life” and having a mid-life crisis. And here’s what else is amazing …when you think about it … I’m only at my mid-life. Think about that. All the life I’ve lived? I have the same amount of “life” ahead of me. 

I’m only halfway to wherever I can be and I’ve only done half the things I’ll ever do.

May God bless me and let me live to 85. And if some major illness befalls me, well, no sense in worrying about it anyway. 

Phew. I’m a year-and-a-half away from what might be my most important and significant half-birthday. Talk to me at Christmas 2026 and New Years Day 2027 and I’ll be able to reflect on the first-half of my life and start thinking about the second half. 

Speaking of the “second half”, I’m lucky my birthday falls in early July, the mid-point of every year, and I can take stock in what New Year’s Resolutions I’ve made, kept, and failed at, and new things I’ll do before 2025 comes to a close. 

Look at life that way. You might be just getting started. You might only be halfway there. But wherever you are, here’s what I want for my birthday … that you start living life in a big way. Let’s all do it.