Thoughts on turning 40

27 Jul 2023

What? Me? 40?

Seeing as I recently turned 40, I thought I’d take on the time-honored and cherished tradition of writing my thoughts.

Yes, this is one of those posts where people post about their thoughts when reaching an arbitrary milestone accomplished only by having the good sense and luck to not die by misadventure or misfortune before a certain number of days have passed. If you’re reading this blog, we’ve probably interacted at some point in my life. Thanks for that – every little bit of life, experience, and such have made me the man I am today.

Words of life

Here are some words I’ve come to live by. Some are quotes from others, but having tried them on like a nice winter jacket and found them right, I have unabashedly adopted them as my own.

1. We all come from somewhere. Where and what we are working to be is what matters.
2. Get sleep. Tomorrow is always a new day.
3. Time is the most valuable asset you have. Invest wisely, celebrate the wins and don’t sweat the losses.
4. Never take a person’s last dollar
5. Everyone has a story to tell
6. There never was a good war or a bad peace
7. Be busy, but not so busy with the small stuff that you lose the whole picture.
8. Embrace reality and deal with it
9. Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. The greatest gift is the ability to forget - to forget the bad things and focus on the good.
10. Cognitive dissonance is your subconcious begging for you to wake up.
11. We may not have chosen the circumstances of our life, but we choose how to respond and rise to the occasion.
12. Trust, but verify.
13. Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
14. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.
15. Talk openly with the people you care about and love.
16. Family is not always by blood. It is by heart.
17. Finally: live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

Words of Hopes

Some life goals / bucket list items I look forward to working towards

1. Run a marathon at the age of 50
2. Write a scifi book
3. Finish my book on the craft of data science
4. Places to visit
   1. New Zealand
   2. Iceland
   3. Angel Falls (Venezuela)
   4. Istanbul
   5. Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and Portugal
   6. Petra and Samarkand
5. Write thoughts on turning 90 and teasing my brothers who will be 92 and 88.
6. Attend my kids’ milestones – be that graduating college, formalizing relationships, landing that dream job that supports their avocation, or simply picking them up after their first skydive

Ending thoughts

Thanks for spending the time to read through my thoughts. It’s genuinely strange to be turning 40 – the people you know are getting older, your body now tells your brain the things it won’t do, and you spend time thinking about things like “What are my thoughts on turning 40?”. Keep on rolling, my dedicated readers.