The mid-life crisis needs rebranding

It's almost hard to think of 'mid-life' without immediately thinking "crisis". But the 'red sports car, new young girlfriend' idea of a mid-life crisis leaves a lot people out.

Michael Allwright is a certified life coach working with men struggling in midlife, a path he chose after having a crisis of his own.

I remember the drive into work one day, sitting in my car, screaming at the top of my lungs 'There's got to be something better than this!'- Michael Allwright

Michael left his corporate job after realizing he was on a path that would lead him somewhere he had no interest in reaching.

He says mid-life is a time to evaluate your life — what you've done so far and what you want to do with the rest of it — but it doesn't need to be a crisis.

"There really can be an existential crisis if you will, but crisis is such a big word, you know? The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, these are real crises."

If not midlife crisis, what can we call this midlife stage?

Allwright suggests "mid-life transition". But he says there can still be room for the word "crisis".

"I think it's still important to use the term mid-life crisis because in some places it is appropriate. People are actually having a crisis. They're making really poor decisions about how to address the change in their life. And I don't want to diminish the impact that that has both on the people who are making those bad decisions and the families and the communities and the workplaces that have to deal with the outfall from people who are having a hard time and actually going through mid-life crisis."

Allwright says getting away from the stereotypes imposed upon men transitioning into mid-life is an important step in people being more open about what they are going through.

"Look at what we've done in society to really help to create this long-lived stereotype. We see it cemented in our collective consciousness through movies like American Beauty or Lost in Translation...but it doesn't have to be crisis. If we can move from this idea of everybody either has to go through it, to everyone goes through mid-life transition, a majority of men and women will experience a measurable decrease in life satisfaction. This helped me, I was like 'oh my gosh I'm not alone!'"