{"id":75,"date":"2013-01-16T16:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/movingforwardwithvalorieburton\/?p=75"},"modified":"2013-01-16T16:20:52","modified_gmt":"2013-01-16T16:20:52","slug":"what-im-looking-forward-to-in-my-40s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/movingforwardwithvalorieburton\/2013\/01\/16\/what-im-looking-forward-to-in-my-40s\/","title":{"rendered":"What I&#8217;m Looking Forward To In My 40&#8217;s!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Dear Friend,<\/p>\n<p>The Big 4-0. Me? Really? Some days I wonder how that happened, and why I don&#8217;t feel as old as I thought I would at 40. I don&#8217;t feel much different than I did at 25 &#8211; perhaps I just have a youthful spirit. A year ago, I felt intimidated by 40. There were some things that didn&#8217;t go as planned in my life (Hint: Read my book Where Will You Go from Here?&#8221;) and I needed to fix them (code: get married again, have kids before 40). But something happened a few months before my birthday. I was making my bed and praying out loud &#8211; yes, I do that when I&#8217;m by myself &#8211; and I had an epiphany: There&#8217;s nothing to fix. Life is good.<\/p>\n<p>I trust my journey is unfolding exactly as it should. I am happy and at peace. What more could I ask for? I&#8217;m grateful. So, as I enter my forties, I&#8217;m looking forward to some things. I share them as a challenge to you to look to the future with optimism and anticipation. Wherever you are in life, celebrate. Have something to look forward to. Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;m looking forward to:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Traveling to the places I&#8217;ve always said I&#8217;d go &#8220;someday.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Something about turning 40 has finally made me say, &#8220;Valorie, &#8216;Someday'&#8221; is here. Get yourself to Italy! Australia! Africa! All those places you said you&#8217;d go someday? It&#8217;s time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Being delightfully surprised.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Psalm 37:4 is one of my favorite scriptures: &#8220;Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.&#8221; The thing is, God doesn&#8217;t tell you when or how He&#8217;s going to give you those desires. So, I&#8217;m expecting my desires to come to <a title=\"Click to Continue &gt; by Browse to Save\" href=\"#\">fruition<\/a>, but who knows what it will look like? A family? My own television show? A New York Times bestseller? Running a half marathon? I&#8217;m prepared and open to the all the possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Looking and feeling fabulous.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not sure who said you are supposed to look over the hill at 40. GenX and Baby Boomers have changed all that. Have you seen Halle? J-Lo? My goodness, they make you want to turn 40! So, I&#8217;m staying fit and looking my best by taking care of me. This is the only body I&#8217;ve got. I want to show my gratitude for it by treating it as the temple it is. Getting older helps me appreciate <a title=\"Click to Continue &gt; by Browse to Save\" href=\"#\">moisturizer<\/a>, drinking water, and workouts more than ever.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Living with passion.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Each decade, I look back and I consider it a success if I have no regrets. While there are inevitably mistakes, painful setbacks, and frustrating circumstances that occur in every decade of life, I don&#8217;t regret any of mine. I&#8217;ve done my work to glean every lesson, every bit of wisdom, and carry it with me into the <a title=\"Click to Continue &gt; by Browse to Save\" href=\"#\">next<\/a> season of life. And I&#8217;m declaring this next season will be my best yet!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>My challenge to you:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Look to your future with optimism and anticipation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Journaling assignment: <\/strong>What are you looking forward to in the next decade of your life? What have you been putting off to someday? When is someday? Be specific.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Until next time<\/em>,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/330\/2012\/09\/val-signature.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-54\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/330\/2012\/09\/val-signature.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"110\" height=\"59\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Valorie Burton is an author of eight books, including her latest, Your 5 Minute Personal Coach. She is founder of the Coaching and Positive <a title=\"Powered by Text-Enhance\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/movingforwardwithvalorieburton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Psychology<\/a> (CaPP) Institute. Subscribe to her free <a title=\"Click to Continue &gt; by Browse to Save\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/movingforwardwithvalorieburton\/\">e-newsletter<\/a> at <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.valorieburton.com\"><em><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">www.valorieburton.com<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friend, The Big 4-0. Me? Really? Some days I wonder how that happened, and why I don&#8217;t feel as old as I thought I would at 40. I don&#8217;t feel much different than I did at 25 &#8211; perhaps I just have a youthful spirit. A year ago, I felt intimidated by 40. There&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What I&#039;m Looking Forward To In My 40&#039;s! - Moving Forward With Valorie Burton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/movingforwardwithvalorieburton\/2013\/01\/16\/what-im-looking-forward-to-in-my-40s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I&#039;m Looking Forward To In My 40&#039;s! - Moving Forward With Valorie Burton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Friend, The Big 4-0. Me? Really? Some days I wonder how that happened, and why I don&#8217;t feel as old as I thought I would at 40. I don&#8217;t feel much different than I did at 25 &#8211; perhaps I just have a youthful spirit. A year ago, I felt intimidated by 40. 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