I’ve read people often live in “seasons”…4-7ish year spans that essentially denote chapters of your life. Maybe a theme of happiness, sadness, struggle, passion, excitement, etc resonates through your seasons. I kinda feel like I might be on the edge of a seasonal change:
Age 18-23 - University years, focused passion on music. Purposefully pushed social relationships to the side to focus on school.
Age 23-27 - Moved away to work. Excited to begin career. Faced personal demons that involved my social anxieties, family drama, life direction, and negative social relationships. A time of emotional roller coasters, involving sadness and depression, culminating in a new sense of self.
Age 27 - 30: First real relationship of my life. The theme here was learning about what a relationship can be at it’s best and worst. Ended with the end of the relationship with my ex partner, and as well as an ex-best friend: Theme was learning how not to be co-dependent and how to keep moving my career forward. Period ended in devastation and a sense of being lost.
Age 30 - 33: Personal renaissance and renewal. Took risks, moved home, explored new activities. New job. Dated more. Made new friends. Took up Yoga, fitness and Dance. Theme of rebirth. New sense of self and identity. Learning more how to become grounded and truly stand on my own. Learned the meaning of being a man.
Age 33: I feel I’m at the tail end of my re-birth…so I wonder what could be next?
These ‘seasons’ are usually every 3 years for me. But I think that’s because I’m young (25) and as time progresses it might start evening out to 4-7 years. I definitely feel like my life has been a series of events and their consequences. There will usually be a moment of clarity followed by a big change in how I view the world. It has become increasingly positive.
My adult years are divided up into college (18-21), grad school (22-26), post-doc (27-29), and All Grown Up (30 to 38). I’m not saying I’ve been in stastis for the past eight years. I know I’m not the same person I was when I was 30. But I don’t have discernible milestones to latch onto, like I had in my previous decade. Maybe in a few years, I’ll be able to see more clearly.
I’ve done this several ways over the years - it used to be a thing I did while I was taking long walks to help shift some weight. I’d vary the routine from walk to walk by stepping back in different increments - as small as two and as much as seven which gave me a number of periods to look back on. I haven’t time to post more right now but I may weigh in with an example later on.
21-25, 26-30 is an alcoholic mind bending time of losing brain cells. Which made for inadequate supply remaining for the rest of the 5 year intervals to date
31-35 honeymoon period of 2nd marriage
36-40 eye opener of 2nd husband
41-45 mid life crisis blamed on the internet
46-50 when did I turn 50?
51- present day…trying to live for number 1.
Future plans, winning lottery, continue with age 51-present day cycle
Phase 1: Childhood through high school
Phase 2: University, unrequited love, obsession with career #1
Phase 3: Return to university and grad school
Phase 4: Career #2, deal with impacts of various relationships
Phase 5: Embark on career #3, reconnect with unrequited love of Phase 2, have it go bad
Phase 6: Possibly in progress, not sure yet what defines it