I have known people get this way when they are in a “comfortable” situation. Lets take the case of a person with good, but not over-achieving, skills at earning money, solving problems, and planning. After 25 years he has built quite a nice and comfortable life. No problems with food, housing, savings, traveled, and no major family issues. Insulated from most of the bad stuff, but also the experiences that tend to bring people together and build friendships.
Now where is the challenge that makes a person happy to be alive and have a feeling of accomplishment? Because he is “comfortable”, a major life style move is a big hurdle because it may put the whole comfortable lifestyle at risk. In other words, not a big deal at 25 or 30, but a much bigger deal at 50. If he screws up, getting back to where he was might never happen.
Everyone gets an opinion, and mine is that I don’t agree with exercise, deep breathing, zen, religion, yada yada yada. So half way to bitch slap: if you have achieved comfortable, those things probably won’t help (at least they don’t help me). You have the ability to achieve significant things, but at the moment you choose not to, so you feel like crap. It doesn’t sit well when we know there are people struggling and would do anything to be in your shoes, but there it is.
P.S. TG’s decade old margeaux with some friends would definitely be at least a short term picker-upper.
