So You’re Already in Your 40s. It’s Still Not Too Late!

Even if you’re not there yet, listen up

4 min readApr 13

Your 40s can be a mind bender. I remember being a teenager who didn’t even know what to care about. Then I was in my 20s and caring about the wrong things.

Then my 30s came along and suddenly I was faced with something I’d never felt before: regret. When I hit 40, I started thinking about death.

We waste so much time either not worrying about anything at all, worrying about the wrong things, or worrying about things that we can’t do anything about. And what does that get us? Well, wasted time.

Time is a finite commodity

My wife asked me how my day was yesterday, and all I could think to say was, “we only get so many and this one is gone.” I braced for a stiff rebuke from her, but she actually agreed with me.

We had, in that moment, an unspoken understanding between us that the days we have are precious, and we can either redeem them well or just piss them away meaninglessly.

What I do today may not actually matter today, but it will absolutely matter tomorrow. As I look back on my past, I realize how many days I wasted when I should have been making the absolute most of them.

I chased people, jobs, and material things that I don’t even have anymore.
I sat and wallowed in misery over lost loves and opportunities instead of moving forward into new and more fulfilling things.
I told myself all sorts of lies about how not-handsome enough I was, not-talented enough, not-worthy enough. I ground myself to a halt with self-constructed barriers that only served to freeze me in place when I should have been kicking ass instead.

I wasted time. Time I’ll never get back. I kind of like where I am at this point in my life, but I don’t want to still be in this place 10 years from now. So rather than waiting for life to evolve itself, I am determined to be INTENTIONAL about moving forward.