I’m pretty sure you’ve already heard about mid-life crisis, the psychological crisis that can occur in middle-aged individuals of late forties to mid-sixties due to inevitable aging and possible unaccomplished desires in life which can lead to negative feelings of depression, remorse, and anxiety for the things they might have or might haven’t done in the past.

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But have you heard about Quarter Life Crisis? I bet most of you didn’t. I myself heard it first from a good friend, @namranna, when we had a meet-up for our financial literacy campaign intended for our high school buddies. @namranna shared her Kerygma conference experience with us, and overcoming quarter life crisis was one of the topics which greatly caught my interest.

What actually is a Quarter Life Crisis?

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According to a Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Alex Fowke, quarter-life crisis is a stage wherein insecurities, doubts, disappointments, and frustrations are arising due to the ideals of today’s career, relationships, and financial status.

Quarter life crisis twitches as a person starts to doubt his own life while facing the struggles and stresses of becoming an adult. If the mid-life crisis infects those who are more or less forty to sixty years old, divide those ages in two, and that’s the age being widely affected by a quarter-life crisis. Simply put, the ones who experience quarter-life crises are the millennials.

I am a 22-year old professional with a stable job, a loving family and friends, and a negative love life. I am very well contented with what’s happening in my life, yet there were times when I doubted my ability and the career I’ve chosen. Is this really what I am good at? Is this really my passion? Should I follow my dream to become a commercial model and a Philippine television artist instead? Should I live out of the country to realize my #afamgoals2018? Okay, that’s a bit exaggerated but there were actually points in my life when I started to question my purpose.

I believe I am not the only one who is undergoing such phase with so many unanswered queries and unwanted self-doubts. Probably, some of you are questioning your worth why your guy chose a snakey lassie over you, why some of your colleagues who studied effortlessly back then landed on a job you always wanted, why all of the people you meet have a happy and complete family while you are just living all by yourself. Too many whys, hows, whens, whats, and wheres are possibly clouding your mind right now, however, there are ways on how to overcome such crisis, and I will give the credits to @namranna for sharing this with us and to Mr. Jon Escoto for sharing this during the Kerygma Conference in Cebu last 2017.

Disclaimer: The following points are according to @namranna’s notes, but the explanations are based on how I understood them personally.

How to manage quarter-life crisis?

You are not the only one who is experiencing psychological struggles of adulthood transition. There are some people who are also suffering from great depressions, even worse than what you believe you are undergoing right now. By recognizing quarter life crisis exists in other people’s lives, you will learn to forgive yourself and console that you are just undergoing an inevitable phase just like everyone does. Instead of burying yourself in the corner, you need to get up and fight because that is how to combat such prevalent battle.

If you’re experiencing a quarter-life crisis because you are struggling to “fit-in” with the trends of the society, then it is best to reassess your mission. Is it really what you want to be? Does “fitting in” greatly contributes to your goals in life? If not, then maybe it’s time to take the path less traveled while finding what your purpose really is.

Vortex is like a whirlpool or whirlwind of fears that sucks the life out of you. Though there is a great advice to “Conquer your Fears”, it is still not the best instruction to automatically dive in and bury yourself in the middle of the vortex. However, this does not necessarily mean to completely dodge such twister, because sometimes, you just have to acquire the essential energy to combat the dreads in life. Fight against it or go with its flow. You choose. Just remember not to test the water with both feet.

There are many external factors contributing to your quarter-life crisis yet you and you alone have the power to overcome it, mentally and psychologically. Perhaps, you are so hard on yourself that the crisis you are experiencing is extremely self-inflicted. Maybe it’s time to forgive yourself for the things beyond your control and start creating hopeful stories that someday, all of your worries and doubts will not even matter in the long run.

Just like winter, spring, summer, and fall, life also has its own seasons. Perhaps, you are experiencing quarter-life crisis right now because that’s what life should be. You are meant to experience such in order to grow and in order to be prepared for the next season of your life. Don’t be in a hurry, and just appreciate the mystery that is about to unfold by enjoying the benefit of your doubts.

You aren’t meant to fight quarter-life crisis alone. So instead of having it all by yourself, get out of your shell and reinvest your time with the people who matter. Share your self-doubts, queries, anxieties and all and you’ll be amazed how they feel exactly the same as you. Use it as an advantage to build a guild and combat quarter-life crisis’ battle together.

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Are you experiencing a quarter life crisis right now? Great! I congratulate you for being a hundred percent human! I experienced such predicament as well yet I managed to overcome it by subconsciously applying the abovementioned points. I hope this article somehow aids you in battling adulting phase at the moment.

Thank you so much for reading this post till the end.

Cheers to Adulthood!

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Web sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter-life_crisis
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/quarter-life-crisis-age-most-likely-job-work-relationships-linkedin-career-house-money-a8054616.html

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