We’re just over six months until my fortieth birthday. I thought I was going to be a bit depressed about it, but I don’t think I will be. However, I do think that I’m going to be making some changes in my life. It probably happened a couple of years ago, but I’m now fairly sure that I’m in the second half of my life. The first half was good, but I want the second half to be much better.

I guess I’m planning to live to 80. That could be a bit ambitious, since my Dad only lived to 62, but I’m in decent health, so I’m going for it. As I go on, I’ll try to reach my grandpa who lived to 96. But I guess, for planning purposes, I’m shooting for 80. That means, that after my fortieth birthday, I’m in the second half of life.

How will I change? First off, I want to become more of a producer, instead of a consumer. I read a lot of stuff and listen to music, but now I want to be the creator. Perhaps, I’ll truly suck at it. But it doesn’t matter. It’s time for me to put stuff out there and see what I can do. I’d like to try writing, drawing, music and I don’t know what else. I also think that it’s time for me to return to school again. The last time I was seriously in school, was 20 years ago. It’s time for me to learn again, perhaps something entirely new. Something that just seems interesting. Not something that helps my career in any way. I’m doing ok by being a system administrator and I should be able to get a job doing that for a good long time.

My concerns with money should also become less overwhelming. The likelihood of me becoming a bag lady is probably pretty small, despite my overblown fears. All I really need to do is eliminate unnecessary spending so that I can afford to pay for some classes and to finish the work on my house. The house work will probably slow even more, but that’s ok. There’s really no rush to it. My issue with the house is that I pretty much know what I’m doing now. So, if I’m not learning anything new, it’s not that interesting to me. It’s just work. I’ll do it, just slowly because there are other things that I want to try now.

Anyway, the gist of this post is that I’m looking forward to turning 40! Life is pretty good and I’m thinking that it’s only going to get better!