Sky High Confessional #17– When I Realised Life Begins at 40

I’ve been creating content for three years now, but I haven’t really spoken much about my age. I started at 40. At the time, I was a little self-conscious. Perhaps I felt a little internal judgement that can come with “starting late,” and although I’ve generally passed for a lower age, there was still a part of me that wondered if I was behind.

That changed last month when my DNA interview was published. I’m 42, apparently 43 if you round up as they did haha, and seeing it in print alongside sharing more personal details than ever before made me pause. It got me to think about why I’d been hesitant in the first place and how I actually feel about it now.

For most of my life, “shoulds” dominated my mindset. Career by this age. Relationship by that age. Success on a certain timeline. And when I didn’t hit those milestones exactly as imagined, I felt like I was falling short. Like I was somehow late to my own life.

What I’ve come to realise is that the things that truly matter aren’t timelines. They’re character. How we show up. Kindness, loyalty, honesty. Building something meaningful for the future while being authentic to who we are in the present. Straddling corporate life and content creation over the past few years has tested my thinking in the best way. One by one, the “shoulds” have fallen away, along with the expectations I once held about what someone in their 40s is supposed to be doing.

Instead of feeling late, I feel ready. 42 doesn’t feel like an ending. It feels like leverage. Life experience, self-awareness, and finally backing myself without apology. I’m genuinely more excited about this decade than any before it.

If sharing this helps even one person realise they’re not behind, that it’s not too late to start, then that’s worth it. For me, life didn’t begin at 20. It began at 40.

Sharing this got me wondering… what age bracket are you in?