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My next birthday I’ll be 47.

I was having a conversation with somebody the other day who was on one of our courses about ’40-year old illness’, a concept that was introduced to me by someone some years ago (probably around the time that I turned 40).

Some ’40-year old illness’ are embarrassing (piles!) some are just down right irritating (silent reflux) and some are devastating and life changing.

It doesn’t necessarily happen exactly when you’re 40, perhaps just around your 40’s, but almost everybody gets them because that is when everybody starts to tip in the other direction and break down.

‘Growing old is not a battle it’s just a series of heavy defeats’ – Atul Gawande

For me, my left leg doesn’t work so well anymore and any of the choices towards treatment or no treatment seem like the devil in the deep blue sea.

Recently my left eye has stopped working as well as it used to, I used to pride myself on my better than 20/20 vision; it was one of the only things that worked properly and now in my 40’s it’s beginning to go.

I suspect it will be my ears next.

I already have no hair.

It’s around this time that people my age start to look back and wish they were in their 20’s and pine for a life lost and a childhood gone.

That’s all well and good and you can do that if you want but you’ll not change it and it isn’t coming back.

There are some advantages to being in this situation, experience, insight and a calmness that you can try and achieve that is generally not achievable for someone in their 20’s.

Like all of these things there are advantages to being in your 20’s (and they’re huge) but we rarely see them all the time.

There are advantages of being in your 40’s too. I just hope I see as many of the advantages as I can before I get to 55 and wish I was back at 46.

Blog post number: 1668