We have to reinvent ourselves, don’t we?

Or let’s say it’s a delicate balance — staying yourself, staying true to your most cherished ideals, and yet continuing to rediscover your identity.

I have a messaging group with my four close friends, and today, the topic of aging came up. One of my friends got fired from his job and was in a bad mood. We’re pretty straight with each other, and instead of cheering him up, I said, “No one’s lining up for us, the almost 45-year-olds.”

I know how it is — this middle-career struggle. If you’re not an executive or a successful entrepreneur, you’re often in no man’s land.

My other friends replied, “Yes, so we should keep trying to do something of our own.”

I agreed with him. If we start today, something good will come out of it in several years. I wasn’t optimistic or pessimistic. I was neutral. This is the reality: start something today, and in several years, it might be possible to see the fruits of your labor.

Then my other friend commented,

“Well, you run with that guy… You will have more attempts. We are the ones who are ‘living to some age,’ and you are just starting. You will say now how fast you ran the latest race or what you recently gave up.”

He was referring to how I told them how I recently ran with one of the world’s best sixty-year-old runners. Indeed, I recently trained with someone who will attempt an American M60 record in Chicago later this year. I was very inspired by the…