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How To Escape Your 40s Without Regrets
Five strategies to avoid disastrous decisions
In February of 2002, while chowing down on lobster rolls and speed-sipping vicious mixed drinks at a divey New York City bar, I toasted to an unofficial milestone.
At just over thirty years old, I had joined the ranks of responsible adults, defined loosely as earning enough disposable income to afford nights out at trendy, overpriced bars.
At the time, however, I hadn’t yet recognized that my twenties had been disastrous in every way that mattered, a passenger on life’s journey instead of the driver, slogging through a career I despised, passing up on relationships to avoid rejection, and allowing social and societal pressures to override what I wanted out of life.
That type of decision-making leads to choices that turn into regrets later in life.
Why did I pass up that meaningful relationship?
Why did I stick with a dead-end career when other options were available?
Anxious to course-correct, I took two big swings at life. One of them sent me to the precipice of bankruptcy, while the other resulted in a relationship now pushing twenty years. Today, I couldn’t be happier while peers of mine live with regrets, harping over decisions they wish they could reverse.
Here’s what I learned throughout it all.
Sound decision-making in your twenties, thirties, and forties determines your happiness in your fifties.
These five guidelines will help guide you on your journey.
Listen to that little voice in your head — the same one your peers will try to silence.
I was never a huge fan of the show, Sex and the City, but season two, episode three, has stuck with me — one of those rare moments where you look at art and say that’s me.
A dating interest of one of the main characters claimed he hadn’t left the island of Manhattan in ten years, arguing the small strip of land had everything he needed. See, I lived in Manhattan for 14 years and never felt the need to escape its confines. And I hate traveling. Hate it. Yes, I know it’s almost…
