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Well, I’m 40! (With an exclamation point no less!) Yes, I turned 40 a few months ago. I have to say until my dr. appt. yesterday I really embraced 40, last night I didn’t and today.. even worse.

Let me start at the beginning.

For my 40th birthday, I had a birthday party. I have family and friends around. My husband, son and 2 step daughters (kids are 7, 15, & 17 respectively) were also with me. I had a great time and really found myself embracing the 40 year old syndrome. I am reasonably active after work, but during the day, I have a day job and sit at a desk all day.

So, after my birthday, I continue with my life, but a funny thing started to happen, I started to feel more confident. It was like a revelation one day. I felt like I gave off an aura of confidence and I felt sexy!! I felt more sexy at 40 than I did in my 30’s. Maybe because I could flirt with younger men and know I could get away with it. (no sexual innuendo’s just flirt). Maybe I was embracing the cougar in me. I felt more comfortable in my skin. So, life is good…

Well then I started noticing little things, my size 8 shorts didn’t fit.. uh-oh I went to a size 10…o.k. I wanted to get back into the gym more often. I started doing the workout that I did at 37 and –oh my the size 10 shorts are getting..umm snug..I also added modifying my food intake–diet for all of the non-dieters–which is something i didn’t do before.

Recently my sweet friend Shannon blogged about how she is soon going to turn 40. As I read her post, I also started thinking about myself turning 40. I have just under a year and a half and I will hit that milestone.

Wow, the Big 4-0.

I am more than likely about half-way through my time on this side of Heaven.

Age is something that haunts me. I remember being terrified of turning 15. 15 can you imagine? I have no idea what was so scary about it now, but I was really scared. I am not talking about being a little nervous about it; I had full blown depression over it.

I look back at 15 now and think – Wow that was the beginning of a great couple of years for me.

Hi I turned 40 1st July, I am thankful I went thru the big aging dilemma when I was about 36- it took me bout 18 months to get over. It ended with the inevitable, hey nothing can stop it so why worry? Why freak out about it? NOTHING gonna stop it : ) !! Crazy how long it took for me to really feel it but I did. And I’m glad that I did b4 now as I think going thru it when I turned 40 would’ve been worse. I’m still annoyed, to say the least, that the cruel irony of aging is that the only ones who know that it doesn’t mean anything- its only the outside that ages- ur still exactly the same person- are the ones who ARE getting older. The ones still in their 20’s & 30’s don’t know it yet… I am glad I have a life partner to share it all with I think turning 40 would’ve been a bit harder had he not been here.

You know, this whole idea of turning 40 years old is really getting to me. In 19 days I will have lived four decades, nearly half a century, that’s halfway to 100 years! To some people it’s “just a number.” To me, though, it’s a major step in my life that I really don’t want to take.

When I was a child, I thought 30 seemed old. That age came and went without any issues at all. Turning 40, though, seems like jumping into a bottomless abyss or something. Once I take that step off the edge, I”ll have no control over what happens to me and no way to stop the fall.

At 40, my life is more than half over, statistically speaking. This first half of my life flew by! Will I be 80 just as quickly?

When I was 30 I dreaded the thought of turning 40 – it was going to be terrible…I just knew it. Well 40 is here and quite frankly…it was no big deal.  In fact my life is better than ever – I’ve recently had my first baby and I feel and look great…other than some of that baby fat that is hard to get rid of around the midsection. I’m secretly afraid that someone will ask me someday if I’m her grandma but thankfully people always just ask me if she’s my “first.”

I keep reading all the time in beauty mags and even on the bulletin boards that 40 is some type of major threshold – you shouldn’t wear sparkly or shiny makeup, you should cut your hair, not wear short skirts or shorts and on and on. I love to sparkle, I love my long hair and I would wear shorts every day if I could.

So is 40 really a big deal? I don’t think so. What about you?

For many, turning forty is a dreaded day. Somehow a stigma has been associated with it that has resulted in some individuals spending days in mourning. Thousands of men and women each year allow the marketing industry to impress a depressing anticipation into their attitudes and actions. That being, that turning forty is a dreaded moment that influences all the days to follow in a negative manner. It has even been reported that on occasions, depressed individuals have resorted to alarming measures.

This book is about life, and a part of life is accepting the fact of aging to be ingrained within the process of living. The time that is spent in living is an investment. We can choose to make this investment with growling and complaints or we can choose to make it with grins and compliments. Regardless of which path we choose to travel, of this we can be certain – Time Is Never Regained.

In Facing Forty (or any age) Forthrightly, author Dan Jarrard presents 5 areas that will greatly assist in making the life-journey more successful.