Fabulous Forties: When You Can Finally Do What You Want

Turning 40 may seem like the end of the world, but there are so many reasons that it’s just the start of the best years of your life!

We all knew we would get there someday, but we weren’t sure that we wanted to. Yep 40. 4-0. The Big 4 Oh no, I’m not! That dreaded age when we are supposed to be settled down and planning on knitting and making homemade pies while our children go off to college and our devoted spouse holds our hands through the golden years….

Well, just take that old record and throw it out! This is a new day and time, and frankly: Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Dubbed the ‘new twenty,’ those of us who have hit that dreaded mark have found that being 40 -something isn’t all that bad. We are finding that we can do things that we have never been able to do. If your girl peeps haven’t let you in on that little secret yet, or you are the first one to reach this milestone, then listen up because I have some news for you! So, why is turning 40 so fabulous?

Freedom

Atractive woman with blond hair and a white blouse to makes a rich flowering spring meadow yoga and relaxation exercises against a blue sky

For the first time in many of our lives, we don’t have to obey the rules that life has handed down. Our duty in motherhood is done, or just about to be wrapped up, and we have more time on our hands than we have ever had before.

Our spouses, if we still have one, are settled into a routine that doesn’t require our constant attention, leaving us with a plethora of options as to how to fill these new found hours.

You can choose to do anything from yoga in the park to going back to school for your doctorate degree. There is nothing holding you back anymore. We have, somewhere along the way, lost the fear that we carried around our necks in our youth because life has taught us that you get knocked down, you just get up again. It’s that simple!

We are no longer tied to bedtimes and boring routines, Thursday night PTAs and last-minute science projects. No! We have served our time, and loved every minute of it, but now it is our time to shine.

Fun

That’s right, I said it: F-U-N. Fun! We are no longer worried about what people think of us. We wear what we want, eat what we want and go where we want. Those long years of slaving away at the jobs we did not dream of having back in the day, yet became just as much a part of us as the wrinkles on our beautiful faces, are no longer seen as burdensome.

Nope, we now know our worth—and who really would begrudge us a little Saturday night dinner and dancing? Unless, of course, you make the front page of your local paper. In that case, kudos to you! Somebody had to do it.

Those years of paying your bills on time, when you wanted to buy that sexy red dress hanging in the window are now about to pay off. You can now, without guilt, purchase that pontoon boat and lay on deck like you don’t have a care in the world. You deserve it!

Fabulous

Portrait of woman with bicycle

Oh, there will be people who talk. People who say, “Look at her! She has lost her mind. I bet she is going through a midlife crisis,” while they shake their heads and walk away. To this, I say, go ahead and let them! That is something else we have learned in the four decades our pretty little pedicured feet have been walking this earth. People will talk about your no matter what you do, so live it up. It’s your time to shine!

Shock them. Shock yourself. Put on that outrageous feather hat and those four inch heels and work it, girl. Plan a trip, pack up and just go. Don’t get bogged down in someone else’s worries.

You survived yours, and they will survive theirs. That is not to say that we don’t still help people because, after all, we are fabulous, and that is what fabulous people do. But, we do not stop living life because they think we have gone off the deep end. They just can’t see (yet) that the deep end is where all the fun is.

Scuba diving or skinny dipping, jamin’ in Jamaica or just basking in the sun—it’s your time to realize all of those dreams that you never got around to. For me, I have always wanted to write a book. When I finish up all of my ‘Fab 40’ Bucket List items, I am sure to have a bestseller.

What do you have planned for your fabulous 40s? Leave your comments. Inspire our generation of ladies and maybe scare the heck out of the next! Yep, that’s what we do. Give them something to talk about. See ya on the surf!

About the author

Cleo

Hello, my name is Rahab… well, not really, but it might as well be. If you were to see me on the street, I would look like your everyday, run of the mill, modern day “Woman Run Ragged”.

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