How to turn forty without feeling blue

George Bernard Shaw said every man over forty is a scoundrel. In that sense, I have turned into a scoundrel. Yes, I turned forty this year and those forty years have flown by.

In today’s fast paced world where everyone is hurrying through life, the forty years old are probably busier than any other age group. As you run through a long to-do list everyday, it seems that more gets dumped on you than you have time for. With that next promotion at stake, you are working harder than ever. Good-for-nothing peers who dropped out of college or had barely passing grades seem to have climbed the success ladder faster. The kids are wearing you down in myriad of ways and on the days kids take pity on you, you have a petty fight with your spouse or best friend. You want to take care of your health but you can’t seem to find time to go to the gym unless you wake up at four. You are barely getting five to six hours of sleep but you still push yourself to go to the gym on Saturday morning. And there, you find these 20-somethings pumping iron and seemingly mocking you and your belly.

As you contemplate and wonder how the forty years have gone by, you realize you are still happier than ever. You are financially in good shape. You likely have earned a lot of respect and people look up to you for ideas and advice. While you may be guilty of living life at a pace that you barely took notice of the time gone by, you have had your share of perfectly paced days, when you did not feel rushed and you did not feel bored. Those days left you satisfied and happy, though you could not point to any one thing that made those times special. 

The pace at which we live life plays a vital role whether we feel satisfied at the end of it all. Why does pace matter? Simply because human bodies are not made to be 24 x 7 machines. We require down time to recharge. Continuous high pace takes a toll mentally and physically. Those who slow down their pace but still manage to have a purpose feel they have lived longer. They stretch their time by slowing down and pursuing goals worthy of their time.

That raises the conundrum of how do you reduce your pace while not getting left behind. The trick is to stop going after several different things at the same time and instead focusing on the two or three things important to you at any given time. Evaluate frequently what is important to you and focus your energies on those key goals. Those who are always rushing because they have packed their day to the brim may live a long life when measured in years, but in the end are more likely to feel they had an unsatisfactory, hurried and a short life.

So I challenge the forty years old souls - take a break and do nothing. Or take a break and do something that you have always wanted to do. Go after those goals that would give you happiness, live at a gentle pace, and you may live another forty years joyfully.