Age is a high price to pay for maturity.
Tom Stoppard
This podcast is for all the 1980 babies turning 40 with us this year. How are you approaching this milestone birthday? Are you excited? Depressed? Ambivalent?
Kristi was going to journal her 40 weeks to 40. Well …. she’s less than 40 weeks to 40 and her journal is blank.
Lindsey was going to make a 40×40 Bucket List. She numbered said list in her bullet journal and wrote down 5 things. For the record, she has done those five things which included buying collagen replacement to put in her coffee.
So what’s bugging you about 40?
We thought we’d have it all together. Spoiler: we don’t.
But lots of people did amazing things after 40:
- Julia Childs started her cooking show.
- Lucille Ball started on I Love Lucy.
- Betty White did not get her big break until her fifties.
- Sam Walton founded WalMart after 40.
- Delia Owens published Where the Crawdad Sings in her seventies.
We have a misconception that life is for the young. If we were plotting 40 like we do a novel (well, like our critique partners plot novels), it feels like 40 should be a climatic moment but the truth is there’s a lot more story to come.
The place we really want to get to is the milestone of being confident in our choices–knowing ourselves and knowing our passion. 40 does feel like a turning point for this.
It’s time we reframe how we feel about turning 40. This milestone is actually a beginning that comes from having a more mature perspective. 40 is a doorway we are walking through, not a gate that is shut to us just because we haven’t done all the things.
40 is a point of maturity because we actually are learning what we want and what we’re willing to sacrifice to get there.
Edit Your Life
Pick a milestone that’s coming up in your life–no matter how big or small–and let’s reframe it into something positive rather than negative. What little things can you do to make this milestone less stressful?
Thanks for listening! If you enjoy A Rough Draft Life, please follow us on social media, share with your friends, and/or leave a review in Apple podcasts. Find Lindsey and Kristi on the socials @lindseypbrackett and @kristiannhunter. Visit our websites lindseypbrackett.com and kristiannhunter.com. Follow @aroughdraftlife on Instagram and/or Facebook and tell us about your milestone.
A Rough Draft Life 