Your Early Midlife Crisis

My psychology and performance-coaching practice has recently revealed something fascinating about my male clients from the financial world: Younger and younger men seem to be suffering from an early midlife crisis.

According to a special 2005 report issued from the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics, a child born in the U.S. should expect to live to 77.9 years of age. The life expectancy for women is 5.2 years more than for men in 2005, the smallest gap since 1946. In essence, we shouldn't be expecting to have midlife crises until our late 30s and early 40s.

So the question is, why have we encountered so many more disillusioned, misdirected and apathetic male clients in their 20s and 30s than in years past?

Reality Check

Many men experience a debilitating sense of behavioral paralysis and purposelessness in their work or personal lives at different times in their lives. They often report that, "My work is just not fulfilling, I don't feel like I am helping anyone," and "I am not interested in working as hard as I used to."

They also battle with the fact that they have not met their expected goals and objectives by the time they had reached 30. When individuals' expectations are not validated by their reality, they may develop a sense of helplessness and hopelessness that's often associated with this developmental milestone in their lives. These are individuals who really believe that they have let themselves or their families down by not reaching their goals as planned. In essence, these are perfectionist personality types.