Breaking Through the Fifty Age Barrier

“Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age.” ~Victor Hugo

“Midlife is about surrendering things that no longer matter, not because our lives are in decline but because they’re on an incline.” ~Marianne Williamson

“Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.” ~Pope John XXII

“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” ~Henry David Thoreau

“The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

One day, if you are fortunate enough, you break that barrier where you know you most likely have more years behind you than you have ahead of you. And you turn fifty. That such day is for me today, September 22. My birthday.

On New Year’s Eve or the day after, many people (I include myself in this number) reflect on the year just finished. We take a look at the year coming, and think about what we would like to be different or better. Then we start to make all kinds of resolutions and goals for ourselves.

Well, turning fifty has been a bit like this for me, only it has been exponential to the power of fifty.

I feel like the first fifty years of my life I was underground, growing through the darkness, searching for an opening where I could come out from hiding into the light of the world in full bloom. Of course I gathered scars along the way during the many detours guided by low self-worth, lack of self-love, emotional wounds and fears. It was a bumpy ride–painful at times with many tough lessons and humbling experiences.

So here I am. I have arrived at the age of “what next?”

I remember when my mother was fifty and I made her a grandmother for the first time. In her happiness was also her dismay at being made a grandmother at such a young age. While I am very confident that being a grandmother is not in my near future, I do look forward, however, to the day.

The reality is that the fifty of today seems much younger than the fifty of my parents’ generation. Many of us have spent so much time figuring life out, that now it’s time to live it with all of that wisdom and knowledge we have gained. We are not ready to pack it in when we are just getting started. At least that is what I feel like.

When we are in an underground period of growth, which for me seemed like a lifetime (and which, in retrospect it was), life is very much about us. Not necessarily in a completely narcissistic way, but in a limited capacity for giving of yourself type of way. However, once we have broken through the darkness and into the light–and hopefully by fifty you have–it is now time to give back. This breakthrough does not mean you stop growing; you are now growing with vision and light.

It is time to launch into the energy of forty and to ask the following questions: How may I serve the world? How can I bring all of the wisdom and knowledge acquired throughout my lifetime and share it in a positive way through service to others? How can I help make the world a better place?

This is my version of different and better. What is yours?

Click here to schedule your free call with Gina.