40 Before. Or I think my mid-life crisis has started

Written by Chris Gibbons

“a loss of self-confidence and feeling of anxiety or disappointment that can occur in early middle age.”

It’s been happening for a while. The slow realisation that age is creeping up on me.

Every time I go for a haircut there are noticeably more grey hairs than the time before; I feel the aches in my back a little more than a used to; My knees make more noises than they did last year.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Then, suddenly and quite without realising, I found myself searching terms such as “what is a midlife crisis” or “when does a mid-life crisis start”

[Content to flesh out why I feel 'old']

[What has this lead me to]

[Personal 'manifesto' has fed into this]

What is my personal ‘manifesto’?

manifesto
/manɪˈfɛstəʊ/
noun
a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

Simply put it’s a list of items that I have ”signed up to“ and agreed to try & achieve.

I’m not going to be making this list fully public, but it includes items such as:

  • Be debt free, as much as possible, before we hit xx age
  • Plan for 40th 45th birthday
  • Live abroad

Bucket list

At a guess, I’d say that most folks have some kind of list in their heads — whether they’d admit to it remains to be seen — of things they’d like to see/do/experience before the end.

And I’m no different; For instance, those close to me know that it is a massive ambition to live & work in Australia, I’d also love to go travelling (probably not as much of a backpacker now, though) and there is a huge list of countries/places/sights that I wish to see, some of which are listed below.

Enter…

40before

It’s probably obvious, but it’s simply a play on the 40 things before you die etc. I consciously kept it vague as I don’t want the list to stop at 40, for me, that is where it starts and I’m hoping that it will be something that will continue to evolve and grow over time, after all, there is no reason why it has to stop at 40 things, right?!

My current list

I’ve not quite got 40, but, as it stands here is my current list:

  1. Take a long holiday in Australia
  2. Be as debt free as possible
  3. Have a photograph published somewhere
  4. See both the Northern and Southern lights
  5. Complete all 214 Wainwrights
  6. Complete the national 3 peaks in under 24hrs
  7. Complete the Yorkshire 3 peaks in under 12hrs
  8. Get a tattoo/s to symbolise things important to me
  9. Dive the Great Barrier Reef
  10. Drive the Great Ocean Road
  11. Dine at a Michelin starred restaurant
  12. Skydive
  13. Complete a triathlon
  14. Sub 2hr half marathon
  15. Walk the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
  16. Celebrate NYE in Sydney
  17. Visit every continent
  18. Swim with sharks
  19. Watch IMBD’s top 250 films
  20. 100 books to read before you die?
  21. Sleep at Everest base camp
  22. Lands end - John o’Groats
  23. Go to an Ashram in India
  24. Cookery school abroad
  25. Write a personal letter to Sam and Harry for them to open when they’re 18.
  26. Become a mentor
  27. Help out a not for profit
  28. Visit Japan (Cherry blossoms, Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine, Mount Fuji, Bullet train, Robot Restaurant, Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park, Drink in a Shinjuku Golden Gai Bar in Tokyo etc!)
  29. Watch an event at the Sydney Opera House
  30. Walk the Sydney Harbour Bridge at night
  31. Experience an actual white Christmas

Next up is a small site to show the progress of the tasks, keep a check of things completed and show any that have been added.

Stay tuned, folks!