The first time the term “midlife crisis” was used was 1965. The same year I was born. Coincidence? Maybe. Perhaps this phrase has been accompanying me through life, biding its time: drawing me to itself: watching my every move and waiting, smirking, knowing that one day, most likely somewhere between the ages of 40 and 60 it would finally possess me. Apparently I could run (and was likely to take that up) but I couldn’t hide. It would find me. Indeed, perhaps it had always been there lurking within.

Midlife is a time when many of us re-evaluate. You get to a point where you can be fairly certain the number of years you have already lived is greater than the number of years you are likely to still have – there’ll have been be an unknown central moment: a tipping point and every day from then on you are eating away at the second half of your life – a half that is only ever going to get shorter.

You know what? I don’t find that especially comforting! I read some Jung – only a little bit mind you, just enough so I could quote him here. He makes a clear division between the first and second half of life and uses the picture of the sun moving across the sky – its rising and reaching the highest point is the exciting first half of life during which, he says, our main task is to find our place in the world and fulfil our potential. Then, once we are in midlife we change direction and we begin our unstoppable journey downwards towards the inevitable end.

Well I bet he was fun at parties! “Hello, my name’s Mr Jung. Are you in your 40s? You are? Well then you are on the inevitable, inexorable slide towards death. King prawn vol-au-vent?”

He didn’t coin the phrase midlife crisis and I reckon that fact probably annoyed him but he did talk about how crises in mid life typically showed themselves in looking for new purpose or jobs or relationships or ways of life and showing definite shifts towards self-reflection and the spiritual side of life.

A large study a few years back found that the average age for both men and women to begin to experience a self-described midlife crisis was 45 and it lasts between 3 and 10 years in men and 2 to 5 years in women.

Women shake off most things faster than men.

How would I spot this pesky midlife crisis breaking through? Depends who you read. It seems that I could choose from a whole list of goodies: if I were to go down an average check list I might ask have I done one or more of the following sometime after the age of 40:

“Buying a sports car or a motorbike.”

Well, OK, I did buy a fantastic little midnight blue Mazda MX5 convertible when I was 43 but I am certain that was nothing to do with feeling that I was in a crisis. I just thought it would be a fun car to drive. And it was. And it broke the ice when I turned up to funeral visits. So, OK, I got a sports car. That one gets a tick. What’s next?

“Taking up exercise in response to a negative view of the physical signs associated with aging?”

And yes, looking back, I did take up jogging and dropped from 100 kg to 80 after I saw a photo of myself taking a wedding and thought “Who’s the big guy in the dress?”

Two ticks, but that proves nothing. Many people jog and some of them will obviously take it up in their 40s. Stands to reason.

Next. “A desire to simplify life?”

Well, fair enough: I’m caught bang to rights on that one. We sold or gave away 90% of our stuff in order to do make life more simple. Three from three so far. What’s next…

“A change in appearance: perhaps a new hairstyle?” Ha! No chance. There’s hope for me yet. When I go into a barbers I just sit down and say “Same again thanks,” talk a little about man stuff for 20 minutes and then escape. Perfect.

Further down the list…. “yearning towards new love?” Not guilty m’lud. After 30 years of marriage Ella and I went on a journey of a lifetime round the globe, practically in each other’s pockets for 6 months…. which leads me to confidently leaving that box thoroughly unticked…

… But which puts a massive thick tick in the box that says “Sudden change of direction.” I suppose giving up our jobs and the house that came with the job and going off round the world could potentially be referred to as a bit of an alteration in where life was heading.

Next? “Trying something new, like a bungee jump.” Already did that in my 30s, admittedly very late 30s – – but I did do a sky dive last year so that probably counts.

Hmm, there are quite a few ticks going in. I don’t know how many is a pass but I think I’m probably on my way to a distinction. And with no revision at all.

Do I get a certificate?

Crisis? What crisis? I’m sure it’s no midlife crisis. I’m happier now than I ever have been. I know myself better than I ever did before – I have unlocked at least 3 new emotions over this last year (I now have 5 to call on: not too shabby for a bloke).

And hence the reason for this book.

There are many who would argue that there is no such thing as a midlife crisis. Scientists have scratched collective large scientific heads and wondered why there is no direct evidence that people will experience these things and we should think instead of “stressors”. There will be various stressors for us and sometimes there may be a number of these that build up but this they say is still just a bunch of stressors, not a crisis.

But for me if it looks like cheese, smells like cheese, feels like cheese, tastes like cheese, melts on toast under the grill like cheese and is no better or worse for me than eating actual cheese then I don’t really care if a scientist comes along and tells me that it’s not actually, strictly speaking, cheese. Mid life crisis exists. I know it because I see it. I feel it. I probably did it. I might still be in it.

And it in no way needs to be a negative thing. It can lead to a totally different way of approaching life. I read someone who wrote about the second half of life in a pretty depressing way: he spoke of the first half being a building site whereas the second half of life was a demolition zone.

Rubbish. Mid life is where you have accumulated a whole load of different building materials through living the first half of life and now you realise there are new ways of putting them together.

This book will raise some midlife questions, will possibly challenge in parts, and also pass on some of our life-enhancing, love embracing, midlife defining adventures which will hopefully make you laugh, hopefully make you think and hopefully make a whole load of sense.

I’ll do it through the lens of the year that we chose to take. Journeying through the selling of our possessions, travelling through 3 continents and the return to a very different life.

The way the book works – – most of it is made up of actual blog posts – I didn’t know when I wrote them that they had anything to do with midlife in particular – – they were just letting people back home know what we were doing – – describing life as it happened. They seemed to go down pretty well. Now, looking back at them, I can see that there are themes and ideas that link together. It’s all been a bit of an adventure.

Held at gunpoint in Johannesburg, skydiving with a crazy Italian, charged by elephants in Zimbabwe, fleeing the love-camp of a self-proclaimed global messiah in Australia, hitch-hiking through New Zealand, walking with cheetahs, beating the casinos in Las Vegas and being robbed by a health and safety obsessed gang of outlaws. Those were a few highlights of the travels.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. First, there was the small matter of quitting our jobs and selling our things…