It’s fun to imagine being eternally young, like Peter Pan, avoiding all those adult responsibilities.

If you recall, Peter Pan was a character created by the Scottish novelist J. M. Barrie, who spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the island of Neverland. He stays perpetually young.

The reality is that no matter what our age, there comes a point when we’re ready to make changes that will enhance our life. In that process we become wiser and more mature. When did that time happen for you? For many of us it happened in our youth.

To recall it, all we have to do is to close our eyes and flashback to our late teens and twenties. It’s when we’re enjoying our freedom and experimenting—learning to make our way in the world. We have left school and probably our parent’s home. We’ve started our career and taken a job where we could express our creativity, make a difference, or just make a lot of money. We’re living on our own in an apartment we share with roommates. Life is good as we meet with the gang for some volleyball and a barbecue at the park. It’s fun staying out late into the night, partying at all hours of the morning. We’re enjoying the carefree life of being single, with minimal responsibilities, doing what we damn well please.

For some of us, during those years, perhaps we took another path. Rather than stay in the singles world, we decided to marry our sweetheart hoping for a happy life together where we’d have a house with a white picket fence, a little girl named Jane and a dog named Spot. Maybe we didn’t have much time for friends because we were already working long hours in our job to get ahead.

Neverland is Over!

Then something incredible happens in our life that puts us on the path of transformational growth and change. We may have been feeling the effects of this metamorphosis as we noticed ourselves going from carefree and relaxed to more serious and responsible.

Suddenly we feel older and more mature as we realize we’re accountable for the choices we made when we were younger. We find ourselves staring out at the world and examining our life and how we’re living it. The question starts popping up: In what areas are we happy and fulfilled and in what areas are we not satisfied?

If we imagine ourself on our morning walk with the dog, it’s often a meditative time to do a life check-in. We think about whether we need to make major changes to accomplish our goals. Yes, we’re the most successful salesperson in the company, but wouldn’t it be an exciting challenge to move into management? It’s been a valuable learning experience working for a large organization, but we realize we are not cut out for playing corporate politics or having a boss. Perhaps, we’ve enjoyed having roommates but now we’re thinking that it might be nice to live alone. It’s been a great safety net being near family and friends all these years, but living somewhere new might be exciting.

For many of us, we’ve been in a process of contemplation but now we feel a need to take control over our future. We are now the boss of ourselves and we’re committed to action. Imagine we’re astronauts telling the control tower: “Houston…I’m ready to take off!” This cycle of transformation we are in is when we can launch our ambitions and make them a reality.

All those long hours at the office pay off because we’ve just been offered a big promotion with more pay. The dream we had to start our own business is now being realized because an investor is willing to loan us start-up capital. We’re going to take the leap from the security of a job working for someone else to building something of our own. We decide to go from renting to buying our own place. Or, we decide it’s time to move to a new city where we can feel totally free and put down roots in a new environment, different from the one we grew up in.

As far as relationships are concerned, perhaps, we’ve dated our sweetheart for a long time and now we decide to make a marriage commitment. Or, perhaps we’ve been happily married for years and now we want to have our first child.

These are all milestone decisions that involve accepting greater responsibility for our life. This cycle of transformation marks the beginning of a major new phase of our lives where we become a more mature person.

What If We’re Not Happy With Our Life Choices?

If we’ve built our lives around relationships, a career, activities and a lifestyle that we’re passionate about, the occurrence of this cycle of maturity is when we’ll accept greater responsibility and build on the solid foundation we’ve already established. But what if we’re not happy with some of the decisions we have made? If so, this cycle of transformation is the perfect time to re-examine the areas of our life where we’re unsatisfied and make positive changes.

If we feel our job has no meaning, this dissatisfaction may lead us to find a new livelihood. Despite years of hard work and dedication, if we’re not receiving opportunities for advancement, we may decide to make a career move. Upon realizing our old friends are not into a healthy lifestyle, we’re now committed to making new ones. The vacation we took, to the West Coast for example made us realize we no longer want to live in the cold, rainy climate we’ve grown up in. We’ve made plans to re-locate to a city where it’s warm and sunny year-around. If life is not stimulating enough in the small town we live, we now decide it’s time to move to a large metropolitan city.

We are compelled to make difficult but necessary changes in our intimate relationships.

We recognize the reality that our long-distance romance is never going to go anywhere. It’s time to find someone in our own backyard who we can build a future with. Perhaps we realize we’re tired of years of being single, having serial sex and empty relationships; we’re finally ready to settle down. Now is when we recognize the painful reality that we married too young. Some of us realize that we are not compatible with our spouses and must consider a divorce.

It’s time to re-evaluate our mental and physical health. Years of depression and unsatisfying relationships may finally motivate us to get help from a psychotherapist. This maybe the perfect time for us to finally get serious about transforming our health if we have any medical issues or addiction problems that require professional assistance.

During this amazing cycle of personal transformation, we’ll evaluate the good, the bad and the ugly elements of our lives and make changes to improve them; or eliminate anything that can’t be fixed. We’re becoming consciously aware that the clock is ticking and our life is passing you by. We’re prepared to work hard, make necessary adjustments and commit to achieving our goals. We are ready for big changes in our lives that can make our dreams come true.

Whenever this cycle of transformation and personal growth occurs for us—be it in our 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s or older, it’s a time to rejoice and celebrate that we now have the maturity and awareness to change our circumstances and liberate ourselves from elements of our lives that are getting in the way of our happiness. We are more ready than ever to work diligently and make sacrifices that will help us achieve our ambitions.

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If you want to find out about some of your life changes, go to the Free Transit Calculator and enter your birth date. And, if you’re curious to learn what your Horoscope says will be happening this year in such areas as your love relationships, and marriage prospects, as well as career, investments and health in 2016: Order your customized Report: Your Horoscope & Future in 2016.

If you want to learn about your unique personality, strengths, weaknesses and talents, order your: Personal Horoscope Report. It includes a copy of your birth chart.

If you’re in love and want to find out if you’re really compatible for marriage with another person, go to the Free Love Compatibility Calculator and enter your birth date and theirs. And, if you want a customized report on your compatibility together, order Your Love Compatibility Report.

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Author: Larry Schwimmer

Image: lil’_wiz/Flickr 

Editors: Caitlin Oriel; Emily Bartran