It’s Been 2,080 Weeks — My Life is Half Over

40 random thoughts for my 40th birthday

Photo by Walter Walraven on Unsplash

I recently read Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. In it, the author says that we live for roughly 4,000 weeks.

By those metrics, my life is half over today.

It’s weird writing that. It’s weird saying it out loud. I realize that it’s not necessarily true, but it gives me a good perspective as I head into the second half of life.

Below are 40 thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and/or lessons learned for the start of year 40. They are in no order. They are just a collection of things that have been on my mind this past year.

Take them. Leave them. Agree/disagree with them. Here’s to another 40 (or more) years.

1. Practice makes progress — not perfect. It took 40 years to realize I’d been saying it wrong.
2. Do the next most important thing. Stop multitasking.
3. Do your own research, but also use common sense. Doing your own research is not an excuse or justification for nonsense.
4. You don’t have enough time to do everything you want to do. Come to terms with this by reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman.
5. You don’t have to have an opinion on everything. Despite how social media makes you want to.
6. In the golden age of conspiracy theories, we could all use some more Occam’s Razor. You might be ignoring comment sense or, you know, the facts.
7. Parenting is (still) hard. A repeat from last year. It will probably be on the list forever.
8. Your career will never love you back. This Amy Poehler quote from Yes, Please:
   “Treat your career like a bad boyfriend. Here’s the thing. Your career won’t take care of you. It won’t call you back or introduce you to its parents. Your career will openly flirt with other people while you are around. It will forget your birthday and wreck your car. Your career will blow you off if you call it too much. It’s never going to leave its wife. Your career is fucking other people and everyone knows but you. Your career will never marry you. … If your career is a bad boyfriend, it is healthy to remember you can always leave and go sleep with somebody else.”
   Shoutout…