PETER FRITZ | Office Anywhere

With each evolution, each rung up the ladder, we realise our problems aren't eliminated – they're replaced with new ones. You cannot avoid problems. But problems aren't the problem. Rather, it's our relationship to problems. Instead of problem avoidance, exercise problem selection.

Time will always be fluid. Sometimes it will drag its feet and other times it will fly so fast you cannot grasp it. But you decide how you spend your time to enrich your life and the lives of those you love. Don't let it slip through your fingers lest it runs out before you expect. Because it almost certainly will.

"If it’s failure you’re afraid of, ask whether you’d a) rather have tried and failed, or b) spent every single day of your life with the same loop of thoughts in your head about what you really want to be doing and why you’re not. If you don’t try, prepare to settle for option B." Laura Belgray.

Three years ago, I was busy having a midlife crisis. I railed against work days and longed for weekends. I sought adventure and escape from the daily routine but nothing I did seemed to change anything. Then, one night at 2:00 am I did something that changed everything. Learn what I did and I how I changed my life.

"As the late Jim Rohn said: 'If you don’t like how things are, change them. You’re not a tree…' All successful investors, business people and entrepreneurs have failed more often than unsuccessful people. They became a success at failing. And they've survived until they became lucky and thrived." Michael Yardney

I used to believe happiness could be bought, so I worked hard and I tried to buy it over and over again. But I was never satisfied. There was always another level; always more. I finally learned that by linking happiness and goals, we treat life as a quest, and therefore paradoxically, delay happiness.

Discover your true calling through the incredible insights of Catherine Rains - who beat cancer, divorce, and a job she hated to become a successful full-time artist. She's now living her dream, and it's all because she reframed her life in a couple of profound ways. "I now surrender & accept with gratitude whatever shows up on my path, especially the 'bad' stuff, knowing that it's ALL for my highest good."

Everything I do today is filtered through a simple, unambiguous question: ‘Will this bring me closer to freedom or push it further away?' If I'm honest, it's been a consistent thread in my life since I was a kid. But what is freedom, exactly, and why is it important?

Our generation is blessed with a gift, and his name is Seth Godin. Seth's insights are concise, thoughtful, and irreplicable. To read, watch or listen to him is to have your life changed every time. Enjoy this instalment of Midlife Mentors, and Seth's original perspective on midlife.

In the absence of role models, it becomes our job to instil belief in ourselves. Indeed, even with the benefit of mentors and role models, we have to reinforce our self-belief almost daily to counter the negative messaging we see all around us. But what level of belief do we need?