I just read a note from another stacker asking “why we don’t normalize starting businesses, learning other languages, writing fiction, and starting to travel at 45 and beyond.”

My reaction was, “Huh?”

He made it sound like doing those things isn’t normal. It might not be normal for some of the over 45 crowd, but it is also not normal for a lot of the below 45 crowd.

What is normal for you relies on self perception. When I turned 40, I realized I was becoming my mother. I loved my mom, but I didn’t want to be her.

I published my first book at 45 while working full-time and raising two teens. I also joined an acoustic guitar player as the vocal half of a duo and performed out for 9 years. I retired after 33 years on the job (not at 65 but at 71), by which time I had published six non-fiction books and two children’s books. I traveled to Ireland in 2023 at 71 with my son. I started writing my Substack three weeks after I retired. At 72, I began working on a direct marketing business that will launch in the next 4 or 5 weeks, complete with a rebranded book.

I’m not done yet. Most of us 45 and overs are not nearly done. As I often say, I’m old enough to know better, but doing it anyway. Besides, I have decades of wisdom to impart!

Get out there and do what you want to do. Listen not to naysayers. As it says on my family crest “Don’t let the bastards get you down!”

So what are your plans??