Last Wednesday was my 40th birthday. I was not specifically waiting for the day to come to begin my life. Let’s face it, I’ve already lived a very full and blessed life, complete with tremendous revelations, numerous accomplishments, and several personal tragedies and struggles in between. With that said, I am relating to the day as if I am just hitting my stride, having only finished the 1st leg of my own personal relay race.
For years, I’ve heard of people fearing their 40th birthdays as if it meant they were now old or “over the hill”. For the past year or so, I’ve shrugged that off for the most part saying that I’ve always lived well beyond my years anyway. As the day drew closer, I then kept declaring how I was going to “figure out my life” and determine “what I’m going to do when I grow up” by the time I turned 40 – as if I would really have all the answers by then. Now that the day has passed, I’m really glad it has because it feels like I now have permission to do exactly that!
I find it fascinating the stories I can create in my head about what I can and cannot do, and when I can and cannot do it. I suppose that’s not just my own non-fiction book though. Malcolm Gladwell writes about how it takes 10,000 hours before you can be really good at something.
As I look at the most important facets of my life – my relationships with my partners and my children, who I am as a consultant with my clients and CEO of my business, etc. – I’m realizing that I have definitely put in my 10,000 hours of sweat equity and perseverance to get to where I am today. Not only have I paid my dues though, I also have learned many valuable lessons. I choose not to relate to “mistakes” in my past performance, only “lessons learned” from doing something and not having it work out exactly as planned. Fortunately for me and those around me, I look in the mirror quite regularly to learn from those experiences and assess how I might do it differently in the future. Maybe that’s why turning 40 feels like a new beginning. Maybe that’s why I feel like I’m just hitting my stride…
Where are you telling yourself stories about your life? What you can do and can’t do… Maybe more importantly, when are you going to start singing a different tune and declare, “Today I turn 40, and it’s time I start living my life!”
