Milestones

I started thinking about it the other day.  Milestones, such as birthdays, mark changing stages of our lives.  This year I turn 30, and it has been only recently that I have truly begun pondering the significance of that and understanding why so many people irk at the notion of the approaching changing decade.

For me, and I know that I may be the minority, I have always felt 30.  My mother used to jokingly call me a 30 year-old trapped in an (enter age here) body.  It became extremely prevalent in my teenage years, but as I climbed through my twenties I felt myself growing into my skin.  I felt myself becoming the person I had always felt inside, and as I approach 30 I feel like I'm reaching the pinnacle.  Post 30, I'm not sure what to expect, and in that I understand the way others felt about 30.

However, looking back, I believe one of the greatest learning point I can give is that action mitigates regret.  If you are reaching a milestone in your life and feeling uneasy about it, take inventory.  What have you done that you are proud of?  What have you done that 'scared' you or forced you to stretch as a person?  What did you not do that you had wished you had done?

Anything falling into the last category?  Take those first.  Make them a priority.  Plan out your next 1-3 years and find a way to include it.  Maybe it's a trip you keep wishing you could take.  Maybe it's saving a little more thank you are (or for the first time!).  Maybe it's spending time with people you've neglected or put on the back burner because you felt other priorities needed your attention.  Start planning.  Carve out a way to save a few bucks and move things around so you can see those people. The more you 'do', the more you see yourself as an active participant in your life, the less you regret, and the more the milestones become celebrations of your life and its accomplishments instead of looming dates served with a side of dread.

And why do we take the time to do these things? Because we're worth the effort.