This week’s post is a bit different. I wanted to write about life after 40 because I have been loving my life and thinking about why it’s so much better than when I was in my twenties. I figured writing this down would be compelling and encourage my readers.
Reasons Why Life Is Better After 40
Seriously, this is not just a feel-good article that will attempt to make you believe that your life isn’t over after 40. Not at all! I genuinely think what I will share and hope my perception about life after 40 will resonate with you.
1- You Don’t Let Other People’s Opinions Dictate What You Do
Most of us would agree that the older we get, the less we care about what other people think. Over time, you discover that no matter what you do, there will always be someone to judge you. You may as well do what you want to do.
2- You Know What You Want and You Go for It
Seriously, when you are young, sometimes all the possibilities ahead of you feel overwhelming. You are unsure where to put your efforts, and sometimes you do not focus on anything. You let life carry you along without really thinking about your choices. As you get older and learn from your past, you start figuring out what gives you joy and how to create more joy in your life. Not only that, but you develop an inner motivation that enables you to work towards your goal and get what you want.
3- You Stop Judging Others
With over 40 years behind you, you learn to stop wasting your energy on negativity. One essential aspect of taking the trash out of your life is to stop judging others—the flip side of not caring about what others think is to stop thinking about what others do.
You discover that it isn’t an insult to your belief system whenever someone does something differently than you. Many issues in life are not purely black and white. Why waste precious energy on directing other people’s behavior? At the end of the day, it’s none of your business.
4- You Learn to Pick Your Battles
You have heard it before: The firstborn child is the well-behaved one because his or her parents are strict and expect the rules to be followed. The more children come after the fewer rules there are and those little humans can get pretty rowdy. Yes, parents who have more than one child become tired and learn to pick their battles. And although, yes, it can hurt how their little ones behave when they are little, it most likely won’t have a long-term impact on the type of life their offspring will live (please, don’t try to dissect what I am saying here, but understand the spirit of my argument).
You learn that whether your child has a nap every single day at 1 pm or skips days because you are busy running errands with your older children won’t have a lifelong impact on them. You learn to pick your battles. That goes for parenting, but also everything else in life. Some discussions are not worth having. Some habits are not worth changing. Some circumstances are not worth changing. Some thoughts are not worth having.
5- You Don’t Worry As Much
The beauty of growing older is that you learn that there is much in life that you can’t control. In fact, you control very little. So why worry about what could happen or what you want to happen that may not? Life after 40 means avoiding thieves of joy and peace. Worry is a big one. You stop worrying as you learn to be at peace with what you can’t control.
6- You Can Decide to Look Beautiful
Now, we all know that beauty is more than skin deep. Even so, we all want to look beautiful! Unfortunately, most of us don’t look as beautiful as we would like. We are critical of some of our facial features or the proportions of our bodies. Fast forward 20-30 years, and we find that not only we can embrace the way we look, but we can do things that will make us look stunning after 40. All women with beautiful faces will look beautiful at 20. After 40, not so much! Your beauty has become closely tied to your health, meaning you have way more control over your appearance.
When you stop taking care of yourself through diet and exercise, your health deteriorates, and you don’t look as beautiful. The flip side is that no matter what your face looks like or what body type is. If you take care of yourself, you will look beautiful. It is up to you! Now, you have that sort of control!
7- You Look for Authentic Relationships
Many of the reasons why life after 40 is better are related to having learned to stop wasting time and energy on things that don’t matter. Well, it goes for your relationships as well. After 40, you are tired of superficial relationships that don’t mean anything. Instead, you look for authentic relationships where you can be your true self and simultaneously want to become a better version of yourself. You know how to spot these relationships, and you know how to invest in them.
Life After 40 Quotes
To finish up with this post about why life is better after 40, I thought it would be fun to look at some quotes about life after 40:
- “What most people consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.” Voltaire
- “At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” Ann Landers
- “Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research.” Carl G. Jung
- “Every man over forty is responsible for his face.” Abraham Lincoln
- “There’s something freeing about 40. There’s something that allowed me to walk the walk and talk the talk of being the woman that I always wanted to be.” – Gabrielle Union
- “I am almost 40 but feel like I’m still 20… so I hang out with some 20 year olds and then I’m like, no. never mind, I am really 40!” Unknown
- “Women are most fascinating between the ages of 35 and 40 after they have won a few races and know how to pace themselves. Since few women ever pass 40, maximum fascination can continue indefinitely.” Christian Dior
- “Turning 40 is often a big symbolic point in one’s life. In the 20s we feel we can do anything, but as the 30s progress we become more mature emotionally, and in terms of work tend to focus. These two things combined: emotional maturity and career focus, often produced an explosion of self-purpose in our 40s.” Tom Butler Bowden
- “I love my age: Old enough to know better, young enough to not care, experienced enough to do it right.” Unknown
- “Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.” Eleanor Rosevelt
- “And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Abraham Lincoln
- “You’re never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” C.S Lewis
7 Reasons Why Life Is Better After 40 Video
