A friend rode naked on the back of a motorcycle to celebrate her 50th birthday. She didn’t see fifty as the end of her youth. Instead of hiding from fifty, she embraced it, faced it down, and created new challenges for herself.
Your fifties aren’t a time to be fearful. It’s when everything you were and everything you could be, join together and become magnificent.
There are some birthdays you can’t ignore since they’re turning points of substantial change. You may not choose to do something celebratory to mark the occasion, but your life will look and feel different afterward.
When you turn eighteen, you’re able to cast your vote in a government election, and legally get a tattoo without your parent’s permission. You could do both in one day if you wanted to — at eighteen, your choices expand.
Hitting your twenty-first birthday makes you an official adult and lets you order a drink without a fake I.D. Twenty-one is also a signal it’s time for you to grow up, but that doesn’t mean you will.
There are personal birthday milestones too.
Some people plan their entire life with age-related checkpoints along the way, things they need to accomplish by a certain age.
Goals are valuable, but you don’t want to put extra pressure on yourself by sticking to them too strictly. It’s a good idea to see how things play out before threatening yourself with age-related ultimatums.
When we’re young, we want to grow up NOW, and when we’re older, we wouldn’t mind if time wouldn’t go quite so fast.
As long as you live, you’re going to get older — it may not be gracefully or with dignity, but it’s going to happen.
Turning fifty is a scary time for many people.
When you’re forty-nine, fifty can feel as if you’re crossing into the world of old. There’s no going back — your life has peaked.
Fifty is only the peak in a sense. It’s time on the top of the mountain where you can collect yourself and look out on the world around you. You have to get back down the mountain, which isn’t an easy task, but it can be a satisfying and transformative journey.
Fifty is when you get a clear sense of how you want the rest of your life to look like and what legacy you wish to leave behind.
Here’s the good news, every age, no matter how advanced, has something wonderful about it, and this is especially true about your fifties.
Your fifties are when everything starts to fall into place — you get focused.
There’s no slacking in your fifties— you know who you are, what you want, and you create a plan to get it.
Suddenly at fifty, you realize your life won’t go on forever, and you know it’s time to get serious.
People in their fifties follow their dreams to the end. They have genius ideas and put them into motion. You’re more productive, focused, and have better follow-through in your fifties than ever before.
Like any machine, as you get older, your body needs more frequent repairs and maintenance.
Are you going to get some medical issues that never occurred to you that you’d get? Yes, it could be strange allergies, weird body noises, or bizarre illnesses. It’s a good thing you have the courage and the strength to handle them.
The physical, mental, and emotional challenges that come your way in your fifties won’t stop you — they exist to motivate.
If there weren’t any obstacles, the game of life wouldn’t be any fun.
Sometimes we need a wake-up call telling us life goes by quickly. If you don’t toughen up and get focused in your fifties, you may not have the time to make your mark.
Your fifties are when you stop caring about what other people think, and you learn to rely on your instincts. You trust you know what to do and, if you don’t, you know where to get the information you need.
In your fifties, you finally start to believe in yourself and become invincible.
People start second careers, go back to school, or finally pursue their dreams once they’re in their fifties.
If you’re scared of aging, use that energy as an impetus to think about what will make you satisfied with your life.
When you’re ninety, you’ll want to look back on a life well-lived. Will you be happy with all you achieved, and your growth as a person? You won’t be if you don’t get to work in your fifties.
Lastly, you don’t need to ride a motorcycle naked (though if that’s your thing then, do it) to appreciate the thrill there is in living.
I’m in my fifties and this time has been fun, productive, exhilarating, and it can be for you too if you want it to be. The focus that fifty gives you is an incredible gift so don’t waste it.
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