The Best Years of Your Life

My 99-year-old great uncle once told me the best decades of his life were his 40s and his 80s, in that order. This blew my friggin’ mind.

But now that I just started my 40s, I’m starting to understand what he was saying.

For a lot of people, the first three decades of your life are fun and exhilarating in the same sort of way that riding on a rickety wooden roller coaster is fun and exhilarating. Yeah, the car might go flying off the tracks and crush you, but at least you’re not one of the schmucks watching from the ground.

By your 30s, though, the ride changes.

You’ve still got momentum, but now the bumps start teaching you something. The failures toughen you, the wins finally stick.

Then you hit your 40s, and this quiet, overlooked thing turns out to be the most important thing all along:

Leverage.

Suddenly, it all starts to make more sense. You have clearer values, better filters, deeper relationships, and way more knowledge.

And with each passing decade, those assets compound. So, assuming you’re focused on the right things, working on the right skills, building the right relationships, every decade should be better than the last.

If you keep telling yourself you’re “late,” you’ll live like it. But if you start telling yourself you’re just getting dangerous, you’ll find that the older you get, the more value every second holds.

Not because there’s less time—but because you finally know what to do with it.

See you Monday,
Mark

P.S. Not sure what to do with your time? Check out my AI coaching app Purpose. Purpose is your no-BS, available 24/7/365 coach that will help you live a life aligned with your values—and probably make you cry (in a good way). Basically: me in your pocket, but better. Try it for free for seven days. You’ll be surprised.

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