8/31/1966

Turning 40 is an odd thing. I fought it for the last few years. My wife is about 18 months older than I am, and hit the big 4-0 before me. So did most of my friends. I talked trash and gave them plenty of "old people" jokes. Oops.

Yesterday I turned 40. It came and went. Not scary. Just calm and good things. And of course lots of "old man" jokes from my family and friends.

Its good. Real good. I can dish it and I can take it. Moving on.

I think what I know now about 40 (as if this is some great revelation) is that it doesn’t mean I’m old, or past my prime. It means that I finally have the self-confidence to do things that I have always thought I could, but didn’t because I wasn’t…cool enough, smart enough, out-going enough.

This has been building in me for some time. The sense that I have finally grown up, and am fully accountable for my actions, my life and "what I want to be when I grow up."

So being 40 (for all of 1 day) is a sense of coming into a time when I know who I am, know what I believe, and know that other people shouldn’t have so much influence in my life unless I want them to.

Day by day, walking it out. Taking risks and not being scared.

Being 40.

turning 40 years old

Taking a leap of faith

Okay…so the new opportunity opened up wide. And I’m taking it. Now, after turning 40, its time for me to run in a different (yet related) career path. That’s very exciting, even if it is unsettling to be starting over in many ways.

But this is good. This opportunity will allow me to answer many questions about myself: was I a “one-hit wonder?,” am I destined to look back at my twenties and early thirties as “the good ol’ days?,” or can I really excel, perform and pull that high-level of work product out of me again?

We’re going to find out.