Growing older is only for the brave

 I think I would say now that there are basically three survival periods in life (from my present point of view of being almost 74 now).

1. Emotional Survival from Zero to 25 or 30.

2. Financial Survival: from 25 or 30 to around 40 or 50.

3. Surviving your health: From around 40 or 50 as long as you live.

Psychologically, I believe the first 30 years can be the toughest.

Though you are financially trying to survive from about 25 or 30 or whenever you get out of school, usually you have had enough experiences in life so you find ways of coping no matter how hard it might get making a living through whatever the national or world economy is doing right then.

But, I once read a book called: "Life begins at 40" which was written in the 1930s.

The basic idea behind this book was: "If you have all your ducks in a row by age 40 then your life can begin at 40.

I would say: "My life began at 50 when I was forced to retire but not 40 because my 40s were mostly hell for me because of a divorce when I was 46.

Then by 50 I almost died for around 8 or 9 months and finally the doctors told me I wasn't going to die and finally diagnosed what I had almost died from as a "Heart Virus".

Also, at age 50 at the beginning of my illness then I was forced to retire. My wife demanded I retire so our 2 1/2 year old daughter and her didn't lose me. She was right actually. I would have died if I had tried to work through all that.

So, for me, health is what I have had to work on a lot since then even though I will be 74 soon.

At first I thought I would be dying by 50 then 60 then 70 but so far I have outlived my father and my uncle (my father by 5 years so far). My mother lived until 90 and passed away in 2008.

What's the most important thing you need to know about living after 40?

Don't Panic!

If you panic "for any reason" often this will kill you.

So, you have to find a way to remain calm no matter what is happening in your life if you want to stay alive to old age.

So, unless you can stay calm and brave you likely won't make it past 40 or 50 anyway.

This is just the way life really is.

Maybe the best thing I can tell you is to accept you might die at any moment after about 40. If you feel like you are already dead (like I did after 8 or 9 months of nearly dying in 1998) often your attitude changes and then you are just grateful for every moment you have left.

From this state of "Gratitude" for each moment of life you have left you can live to be 100 or more if you are lucky.

By God's Grace