What if the reason something feels off in midlife isn’t that your whole life is wrong — but that some important parts of you have slowly become too quiet?
For more than 20 years in corporate life, I became very good at turning up certain channels:
Work. Responsibility. Performance. Solving problems. Getting things done.
All valuable.
But at some point, I started wondering:
What happened to the other sliders?
Play. Creativity. Connection. Adventure. Nature. Feeling fully alive in my own body.
Maybe what we sometimes call a midlife crisis is not always a request to blow up our lives.
Maybe it’s an invitation to look at the mixing desk and ask:
What part of me has become too quiet?
In this episode of JORMAZIN’, I explore the idea of life as a mixing desk, why the settings that once served us may no longer be the right settings today, and how we can consciously turn up the volume on what feels alive and essential now.
I also share two very different volume knobs from my own life — inline skating in a skatepark and simply going for a walk with my wife — and introduce a reflection I’m calling the Wheel of Fully Alive.
Because feeling more alive doesn’t necessarily mean making life more extreme.
Sometimes it means noticing what brings you back into fuller contact with your own life.
Your question for this Pause
Imagine your own life as a mixing desk.
What is already very loud?
Work?
Responsibility?
Achievement?
Being there for everyone else?
And then ask:
What part of me has been too quiet for too long?
Choose just one slider.
Then ask:
What would turning it up by 5% look like this week?
You don’t need to reinvent your life today.
Maybe you don’t need a completely different life at all.
Maybe you just need a more conscious mix.
If this reflection gave you something to think about, subscribe and share it with someone who might need this Pause too.
You’re Amazing!
Jorma — Co-Active Coach | 20+ years corporate
📅 Free Chemistry Session: https://calendly.com/jormaschneider/30min
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorma-schneider
🎵 Songs used in this episode:
I created the song used during the Wheel of Fully Alive moments with AI on Suno.
Listen here:
Turn up the volume of your life (UK Garage Remix)
https://suno.com/s/f5WOeCceDzdN5xc2
Song: A Place in the Stars: Music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: 1OGMH2XZ0BFHWN7W
Timestamps
00:00:00 — Imagine Your Life Had a Mixing Desk
00:00:47 — What Has Become Too Quiet?
00:01:24 — The Channels Life Teaches Us to Turn Up
00:02:25 — Why a Good Life Can Still Feel Flat
00:03:05 — Inline Skating: One of My Volume Knobs
00:04:06 — Aliveness Doesn’t Have to Mean Adrenaline
00:04:45 — The Wheel of Fully Alive
00:06:00 — Why Every Slider Should NOT Be at 10
00:06:55 — Are These Still Your Settings?
00:07:45 — What Is Essential to You Now?
00:08:24 — Turn One Slider Up by 5%
00:09:13 — Don’t Turn Aliveness Into Another Project
00:09:46 — Maybe You Just Need a Different Mix