The midlife clock is ticking: How we understand 'time left' can help us use it well

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In Adaptation and the Life Cycle, psychologist Bernice Neugarten tells us that we arrive in our middle years by our social clocks, not our age. For many people, as Neugarten theorized, this means milestones like meeting a life partner, buying a home or having a family.

A carefully crafted career trajectory earns us an increasing scope of work that might even distract us from changes in appearance or bodily function. In theory, milestones follow a "socially prescribed timetable for the ordering of major life events." They unfold at certain ages, roughly predictably. Our "social clocks" tick in tempo to usher us into our middle years.

At this stage of life, theoretically, we have had time to breathe and build mental catalogs of tried strategies and real-life outcomes. We become masters of our own time, making seamless decisions, taking things as they come and getting whatever work needs to be done. We help an adult child keep on track.

We are seldom fazed or dissuaded. In our middle years, we are caregivers of parents, partners, even adult children, likely busy with paid work and volunteering. Psychologist Margie Lachman conceives of across-generation roles and responsibilities, often in multiples, as a source of accomplishment, even mastery in midlife.

Masters are typically not daunted or driven by life's complexities. They are far busier breathing, thumbing through their own coping catalogs and finding reasonable solutions. Masters of their own time, however, are not made of armor.

Unexpected events, especially negative ones (for example, a child dying before a parent), can derail them. These types of events lack rhyme and reason, leave us ill-prepared and in limbo, even shattering continuity in the life course. In these circumstances, there are no tried actions in our catalogs to help us decide how best to act now or adapt.