This might be the best Lemmy thread I’ve seen so far.

Warm up and stretch. This is the decade where you start to lose your flexibility.

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• Your body is now “out of warranty”. When it breaks in a significant way, it may never get fully better. Don’t do stupid stuff that will break it in those ways.
• If you haven’t figured out yet that you can’t drink, party, or skip sleep like you did earlier in life, learn it quick. Each of these will have a much larger impact on you.
• If you don’t have your retirement savings on track now, you have a VERY VERY short window to correct that. Its going to be much harder now to put the money aside than it would have earlier in life, but you’re in the prime earning years of your life. I would think you will earn more now in the next 10-12 years or so than you will/would have in any 10-12 years of your life.
• Hopefully you’ve learned by now to be comfortable with yourself in your own skin. This means not doing things/buying things to impress other people. You are who you are. This doesn’t mean stop learning or improving yourself, but nobody is going to be impressed with a 40+ year old driving an amazing car. It doesn’t matter how amazing the car is.
• Support younger people. You didn’t get where you are on your own. You had help, advice, and your mistakes were forgiven by those older than you because of your youth. Now its your turn to do that for the younger people. You grew up seeing heroes around you. You are now the hero in a younger person’s eyes. Hold that duty sacred. Be their hero in how you act.
• Embrace change! No, things aren’t like they used to be. No, they shouldn’t necessarily go back to those things just to make you comfortable. Its not our world anymore, it belongs to the younger generations. Understand your ways could be out-of-date or backwards. Your old ways worked for you in that old world. That old world is gone. Be part of the new. You’ll have to do this two or three more times before you die if you live into your 80s or 90s.
• Stay fit. That doesn’t mean body builder or supermodel. It means be moderately active so that picking something up doesn’t cause a strain injury that will take you 6 months to a year to recover from. You shouldn’t be out of breath walking up stairs. If you are, make changes. You’re likely already seeing the difference in your peers with those that stayed fit vs those that didn’t. Be part of the first group, not the second. If you are in the second group, you can change to the first by taking care of your body and eating properly.
• Make a will. You will die and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Dying without having a will makes some of your assets evaporate in probate and may mean your money/assets go to people you may not want.
• Go to the goddamn doctor for wellness checkups! You’re entering the time of life where conditions found early are treatable. Don’t dying/become disabled because you were too lazy or afraid to go. Yes, some of the things are going to be uncomfortable, but I can tell you its much more comfortable than debilitating pain or death.

You might look at the list above and think it negative for you now. Its not at all. This is the prize for living to this age. You likely have some friend or family that died before 40. You are here to see this part of your life. Make sure you’re still here to see 50, 60, 70, with as much of your body and mind as you can.

Good luck!

get ready for your mid life crisis at 45. it’s gonna be great. you’re gonna be hip again for like five minutes but it’s gonna be glorious and you will get laid a lot.

• Write a will. Just get it out of the way. Much easier to edit it later in life rather than create one from scratch.
• Get a physical and cancer screening every year …from now on. You cannot be too careful.
• Exercise in some way, everyday. Even if it’s just a walk around the block. You’re not trying for washboard abs (unless you want to), you just want to keep your body as active as possible. Every little bit helps.

Stretch every day, holy shit that makes all the difference for mobility. It takes about 5 minutes when you wake up in the morning.

Wear sunglasses that wrap around and protect your eyes. Wear the kind that work, not just the fashionable kind.

See a primary doctor and a dentist at least once a year. Drink less booze and coffee, drink more water. Stretch and exercise when ya can. Everyone here pretty much nailed it. But, also, make sure you have a hobby. Something to keep the mind healthy too. I like putting together gunpla models. It’s relaxing and keeps my brain sharp (well, sharp is a strong word, but you get it). Finally, you’re gonna go to a lot more funerals than weddings now, so reach out to people you haven’t talked to in a while just to say what’s up.

• See the doctor for an annual physical if you let that slip.
• eat right, including watching your carbs.
• fucking exercise 3x/week.
• make sure your finances are on track for retirement. If you haven’t saved, establish a 401(k) ASAP. If you got kids and you have the means, you need 529 plans.
• prioritize sex while your pecker still works.

41 year old here, just keep working on making yourself a better person. Make the world better for the people living in it. Help the people you can especially those who need it the most.

Don’t let people tell you to “act your age” you still be silly and fun.

Geez. This thread is making me feel like I should be in pain 24/7.

I just turned 47. It was around 41 when I realized my body was changing, less testosterone, less muscle mass. The new routine in 2020 of working from home was a major physical hurdle for me to deal with. All sorts of pains I never had before. Stretching, walking, sleeping, hydrating, eating better all helped with weight gain and stiffness. Pretty much what everyone else is saying here. For me though, it was (slightly) more about the work life transition than the getting older part.

What I would add to the conversation is to appreciate your memories.

As we get older and the people around us start fading away, I’ve found I’m spending a lot of time gathering photos and videos and collecting things that have special memories associated with them. I’ve been frustrated recently that we (my friends and family) do the same things year over year or even week after week and all those memories start to blur together as we get older. The exception to this is if there’s kids involved because you get to see them grow up so fast.

Make fresh memories. Embrace the ones you’ve made. Preferably all ‘good’ ones.

And I really want to promote the idea of printing photos, hanging them on your walls, and getting photobooks made. My uncle (who didn’t have a partner or kids) recently passed and he had all these photos hidden on his phone. He also had a bunch of printed pictures from the '70s through the '90s that I’m in the process of scanning. We have this great technology to capture awesome images at any moment but they often get forgotten immediately after they’re taken. Print your pics and have photobooks made that can be physically passed around and handed down. Sure, we can share digital stuff easily today but tech changes and people loose touch. As cool as image galleries are on our phones and how the AI curates them for us, there’s still something very special about holding a few dozen printed photos to look through. Like, Spotify playlists are great for what they are but holding a few CDs or records in your hands is a great thing too.

Try not to do that again; it’s very bad for the space-time continuum.

Keep an eye on your health. Yearly checkups, bloodwork, etc. as well as paying attention to what you eat and how much you move.

Be thinking about retirement and what you can do/invest to prepare. What this looks like depends heavily upon the country in which you live.

Living will and will if you haven’t already.

If you’ve not really saved for your future do it NOOOOOW like yesterday level now. Like 2 checks from now something must be being sat back. Even if its just a tiny bit. The time to start was many years ago. Don’t wait even longer.