In July, I turned 41. It wasn’t a big deal to me.
Not like turning the big 40 last year. That felt like a bigger deal so I went on a 7 day cruise with my wife to celebrate. This year we just had lunch with family. It felt like another birthday even though it’s so weird to think I’m 41.
It feels weird to me because I don’t feel 41.
Thankfully I don’t look 41. It’s being Chinese that makes me look younger than I am. I also take care of my skin, don’t smoke, and don’t drink much. I do have a really bad sweet tooth though.
I feel younger than 41. I don’t get caught up in comparing my age to some made up chart to tell me where I should be in life.
The running joke is that turning 40 is over the hill. Thankfully, I didn’t have a mid life crisis and buy a sports car last year. 40 is supposed to be the peak of our lives. I think that’s stupid but there are people that feel that.
When people think 40 they’re thinking more about it being closer to retirement. Just put in 20 or more years and freedom will finally be here!
I’m not counting down the years till I finally retire because I’ve created a business that gives me the freedom I want.
I look forward to working as long as I can and as long as I enjoy what I do. People want to retirement because it gives freedom. No more work that you don’t want to do.
If I’m doing work that I enjoy, why would I want to stop doing that? I love to travel, but there’s only so much travel I feel like I can do. When I travel now, I enjoy it but towards the end of the trip I’m ready to get back to work.
This was the opposite of how I used to feel about my work. I used to dread the end of a vacation because I knew I would be walking back to my prison cell. Now I look forward to getting back because I enjoy my work.
All my work is not easy. If you believe that I just sit here push a few buttons on my computer and money comes flying in you’re mistaken. I deal with problems that stress me out. I have to overcome new challenges. It’d rather be doing that for my business than doing it for someone else.
I don’t see age as a number.
It doesn’t define who I am and what I can achieve. I feel like I’m just getting started on life. I feel like the previous 40 years have just been practice.
I don’t think it’s too late to do anything I’m doing right now or that I want to do. Who says it’s too late at 41, 51, 61, or even 71?
We’re living longer now thanks to better medicine. If we take care of ourselves right, we can lead a full and happy life well into our 80’s or longer.
If I were to live to 80, then I am one year past the half way point of my life. I feel like it’s been a long life up till this point. To think that I have the same number of years left is amazing. Plus I’m smarter with more experience so I know in the same amount of time I can achieve so much more.
That’s why I feel like I’m just getting warmed up.
I don’t feel like I’ve reached my maximum potential. I don’t know when that’ll be. I might never reach my potential because if I keep learning and growing then that keeps life interesting. I have no desire to stop that because when that happens then life feels boring.
I enjoy pursuing new projects that interests me. That’s why I have a hard time seeing myself in 5 or 10 years. The world changes so fast. Technology and the world changes so fast. The iPhone only came out 11 years ago in 2007. Facebook started in 2004. It feels much longer and that we’ve had it forever.
Who knows how technology will shape our lives. What we see now as new and innovative will be old and ancient in the future. I can see a future where video chat as out of date. We will be talking to holograms or virtual reality to make it feel like the person we’re talking to is there with us.
When I turned 30, that was a big deal to me because I thought I would have my life in order by then. I thought I would have a great job and know how the rest of my life would look like. I wanted that security. Instead I was more lost and confused at 30 than when I turned 20. I was so far behind where I thought I would be in life.
At that age, I was comparing my age to where I thought I should be in life.
It wasn’t till I turned 33 did I decided to stop this craziness. What I was doing was nothing except complain about my life and hope for a miracle to change it. I knew at that age that it wasn’t coming. If I wanted change, I had to take control. I couldn’t hope and pray anymore. I didn’t care how old I was or what other people my age were doing.
I decided that this is my life and I’m going to do whatever it takes and however long it takes.
Where I am right now is exactly where I’m suppose to be. That’s how I see it because there is no instruction book for life. There is no book that we reference to see where we should be in life or what we should have done by now.
We’re all on different journeys. You might be 41 and you have three kids. That’s great. That’s your journey. I’m 41 and I don’t have any. It doesn’t mean it’s too late. It doesn’t mean that I’ve missed my opportunity.
Life is not linear. It doesn’t go in a straight line. Once you hit a certain age, it doesn’t mean you’ve missed your opportunity.
One of my favorite stories is about Colonel Sander. His legacy will be around long after we are gone. He didn’t start to pursue his dream of KFC until he was 65.
I get emails from a lot of people from all ages and they feel like their life is over cause. I get that from people who are in their 20’s or 60’s and in between. Says who? Who made up that rule?
That is not a fact. As long as you are alive and breathing, you can still purse your dreams. With technology available now it’s easier. Years ago if anyone wanted to write and sell a book, they had to use a traditional publisher. Now anyone can write and have their book on the worlds’ largest online store, Amazon. How amazing is that?
Before if you wanted to have your own cooking show, you needed to be discovered and be on TV. Now with a phone or a basic camera that records video, anyone can have their own cooking show on Youtube.
If you wanted to have your own radio show and talk weekly about a topic you love, you don’t need to get hired by a radio station. You can start a podcast with just a microphone, computer, and software.
Last night I was watching America’s Got Talent and a woman who’s 71 years old was performing with her dance partner. She doesn’t look 71 at all and she doesn’t feel like it. During the dance, she was being thrown up in the air, tossed around, and doing things that I couldn’t do even if I was 21. It was amazing. She said she want to inspire people that it’s not too late even at 71 years old. That is a woman who knows how to get busy living.
Stop telling yourself that you’re old
If you keep telling yourself you’re old, then that’s your choice. You have a choice to get busy living or get busy dying.
Or you can find so many stories of people who are older than you doing amazing thing or starting a new chapter in their life. Those are the ones that can inspire you. They ignore the idea that it’s too late.
Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, look up and see all the opportunities available to you. It doesn’t matter what has happened to you. It doesn’t matter if you went to school or not. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have experience.
You can get all that. Just like how you found my website you can find out how to do anything. Google, Youtube, and books are all you need to learn how to do anything.
Change the story you constantly tell yourself. People older than you have done what you want to do. I guarantee it. You can find the exception to your excuse.
As for me, I’m just getting started.
