How to Get the Most Out of a Midlife Crisis

Often when you hear about someone having a midlife crisis, it’s framed in a negative light—but Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at MIT, says there is a way to take advantage of this natural life stage.

Watch this recent Career Lunch & Learn to hear Setiya explain the social science behind the idea of a midlife crisis (the subject of his most recent book, Midlife: A Philosophical Guide) and share strategies for adapting to adulthood and middle age.

One large factor in this life stage, says Setiya, is the phenomenon of missing out: “the fact that even if things go relatively well, midlife is a point where you sort of start confronting the lives you’ll never live and the kind of things you’re never going to do.” One way to combat this, he says, is to place against these regrets the things you would have missed had you gone another direction in your life—factoring in places you went, the things you learned, and people you met that you would not want to give up.

Watch more Career Lunch & Learn webinars and learn about other upcoming MIT Alumni Association career programming.