Turning 40, the new 30, or whatever.

This year I turned 40. And honestly, I still can't decide if this is a big deal or not.

I think for everyone out there it's common to look at the same significant birthdays, 18, 21, 30, 40, 50 and so on. Even our anniversaries beyond the first few start to go into your 'big ones' and culturally mean more. Your 60th wedding anniversary is sometimes known as your Diamond Anniversary. Your 54th? No one knows, or probably even cares.

While my 40th birthday didn't exactly creep up on me, in fact I went a bit further than I normally do for my own birthdays and I'm doing a lot. I can't decide if I'm making a big deal about it, or it is a big deal. Maybe making something a big deal makes it a big deal?

I am 40 though. But I don't feel it. That's super common I know, many people even a lot older than me say they still feel young mentally (even if they might forget why they came into a room - this hasn't happened to me yet, thankfully). I do think about years gone by though, part of being a parent probably brings this into focus, by reflecting on the years that you've had and what it was like and what it's like now. Recently I've been playing older video games with my sister, not that old that it was before she was born (she is 14 years younger than me) but around 15 years ago when she was still in school, not even a teenager. It makes me feel old. Or maybe reminiscent? 

There is a truth that I am getting older. When you're in your 20s you have everything ahead of you, despite how young some fantastic and impressive people are out there the reality is the majority of your life is in front not behind. Even when you hit your 30s, it's likely for my generation at least to still be figuring things out, getting settled, buying a house or whatever it is that adults do. At 40 you do need to start thinking about the future, because it's not that far away anymore. You are probably almost half way through (or at least we hope...) your working years of your life and after that who knows? 

Is turning 40 really that significant?

Maybe. Yes. No? Maybe turning 40 should mean something, but maybe the point of this post is to talk about the importance of why you should give things meaning. Celebrating yourself, your milestones, your history, your future.

I think it's easy to get caught up and lost in life. Sometimes it's easy to forget, be lazy and not make the effort for yourself. I'm a strong believer that you should love and cherish yourself. No matter what. Even if you know that there are things to improve, or aren't going well (this is contradictory, but incredibly healthy) you need to love yourself. And that means doing things like celebrating your birthdays, making a big deal about your milestones. Even with loved ones around you, they don't know you as well as you know you - so make a big deal of it.  

Because it doesn't matter if you are 30, 40 or 50 or whatever age. Give love to yourself, celebrate and know no matter what age you are, you have so much more to give and experience.