How to Make After 50 the Best Time of Your Life

What if the best years of your life weren’t behind you; but are right here, right now?

Too many women quietly decide their best days are over, often long before they’ve truly begun to live for themselves.

But I’m here to tell you: you aren’t too late. In fact, you’re right on time. The truth is, the most vibrant, meaningful, and soul-aligned part of your life can still be ahead.

if you choose to believe it.

Last night I was talking to my 92-year-old mom as she was contemplating an upcoming move. We talked about some of the things she had done in the last 40 years. I told her that it was her example that led me to keep believing that life only gets better and better.

If we allow for that belief. Many women believe and accept that at a certain age, their best years are behind them. I’ve seen women say this in their 30s, 40s, 50’s and of course your 60s.

This post is for you if you want to experience life more fully, feed your soul, and live a life more aligned with your own values. 

In my opinion, our third phase of life can be our most creative, joyful, and loving part of our entire life. And this is up to you to decide. 

I will say, as I often do, that only you get to decide when your best time of life is.

This isn’t about what you have done versus what you are going to do. This is about having the belief that this is absolutely the best time of your life and it’s only going to get better.

I’m turning 63 soon and I believe this more than ever!

Why are Your Best Years Still Ahead of You?

The past is gone. You cannot even get yesterday back. Every day you get a new start. How about deciding to make this the best start to the next stage of life. 

It’s really common to think our younger years are our best; but what is the use of believing that. It only keeps you stuck in worrying about aging and how awful life is going to get. 

Here’s the new belief we’re going to be working on in this post:

The best years of my life are happening right now! 

The reason that the best years are ahead of you, is honestly because they are the only years you have. Even if you have just today, why not make it the best, just as you are.

Most of us have grown up thinking that being older or aging is a bad thing. It’s just a thing, a natural part of life if we are lucky enough to experience it.

For my part, as I approach birthdays as I am doing right now, I decide that this upcoming year is going to be the best year of my life. And it always is!

You Get to Decide

One thing I’ve noticed with many women is that they live reactively much of the time. What I mean by that is that they take life as it comes.

So, to some extent, yes we do have to accept much of life around us, as it comes. People are going to do what they are going to do. Circumstances around us will happen.

And yet, we are not without power. We always have the power to make a decision. This doesn’t mean that life will always go the way we think we want it. but making decisions ahead of time, creates a lot of personal power.

In this case, by deciding ahead of time that this is the best time of your life, you will see everything through this filter. 

You will see life working for you rather than against you.

Maybe you don’t believe that yet, but stick with me. I don’t need to get you to believe this 100% but if I can create a little space for this within you, it can change the quality of your life.

What Happens When You Believe the is the Best Time of Your Life?

Everything that happens in your life begins with a belief. As a simple example, let’s say you are thinking about taking a pottery class. 

When you go into your class with the belief that no matter what, you are going to learn to make a functional piece of pottery, and you’re going to stick with it until you do, what do you think is going to be the outcome?

You’re going to make that piece of pottery! You can literally feel it in that decision.

Now compare that decision to this one. I’m going to take a pottery class and see how it goes.

There is no power in that decision at all. You might have fun. Pottery might come easily to you and you end up making your piece.

Or it might be more difficult than you thought and you give up after a few weeks, never to try again.

Examples of How This Works

Now let’s apply this to believing that this is the best time of your life.

You make this decision: This is going to be the best time of my life, no matter what. 

When you decide something like this as your foundational belief, you start thinking differently. You start viewing life with a long-term view.

Eating healthy makes more sense. You aren’t just trying to lose weight, you are eating so you feel great for the next few decades.

You begin to exercise because you want to be able to do fun, cool, and useful things for as long as possible. 

You treat yourself so much better because this is YOUR TIME. 

Now compare this to the belief: My best years are over and done with. 

With this belief, you have what I call the, “it just doesn’t matter” thought. When you don’t believe that the things you do matter, you don’t stick with the healthy decisions.

Did you hear that. It’s probably the most important sentence in this post. When you don’t really believe something matters, you will not stick with even the good for you things!

Knowing the power of making decisions ahead of time is the secret of a satisfying life. 

Don’t worry, it won’t take the surprises out of life. Life will still be challenging at times. But you will see everything differently and this will help out so much. 

5 Reasons This is the Best Time of Your Life

You’ve gained a lot of wisdom

Life experience is your treasure chest. All of it including the painful parts. Sometimes we feel so sad about past things, we forget to realize that we survived all of it.

We are here and we have gone through a lot and learned a lot. We don’t get wise from a life with no challenges. It is your challenges that have taught you so much.

Everything I have created for the past 10 years is because of my own life’s challenges. I change women’s lives because of the challenges that I worked through.

I literally created a later-in-life career because I had challenges and I worked through them and learned from them. And I documented them as well through my blog and my emails.

You have a chance to walk your own path

This is an amazing part of your life. You have this opportunity to define and walk your own path in life.

Honestly, most of us go into adulthood with all our childhood programming. Over the decades we gain experience and learn more about ourselves and adjust our path accordingly.

If I had accepted that a traditional job was the only way to make a living, I would have missed out on so much! Of course I would have had other experiences and with a decision that this was the best time of my life, I would have welcomed them.

That being said, I love waking up every morning, without an alarm, working part time in conditions that are harmonious, and being creative. This is my own path and I love it so much!

You can discover the most valuable things to you

As I’ve grown older, some of my priorities have changed. Some are the same. As a mom and grandmother, I value my family and prioritize spending time with them when I can.

I also prioritize my own well-being. I believe how I feel is as important as how anyone else feels. I will never put how someone else feels above my own welfare.

If a part of you is shouting out in your head that this is selfish, tell it gently that it isn’t. In fact, when we prioritize our own wellbeing, it is better for everyone in your life.

You can expand your life experience in amazing ways

Earlier this week, I went through some photo prints that I had developed a couple of months ago. I had specifically printed out pictures of all the amazing things I had done in the past decade.

I was amazed seeing how my life had expanded in my 50s and 60s. Yes, there were so many challenges and sometimes I tend to focus on the more difficult parts. But seeing my life in living color, I felt such gratitude for everything that I had experienced  in this time of my life.

In my fifties, I began to travel. I learned to cycle for long distances. I hiked up mountains. I began a business that supports me to this day. I’ve learned so much about people through my coaching work.

My life literally expanded in surprising and mind-blowing ways. And this brings me joy daily.

You discover there are lots of things you can do and you have plenty of time to do them

Many of you don’t do things because you don’t think you have time or that it’s too late.

It’s not. If you have the dream and desire, it’s worth going after. Honestly, there isn’t an age where it’s not good for us to accomplish new and different things.

There is zero upside to telling yourself it’s too late or there isn’t enough time. That is no fun at all. And honestly, I believe that doing aligned things is good for you.

5 Ways to Make This Stage of Life the Best Time of Your Life

Small changes

You don’t have to change everything all at once. In fact, you don’t even have access to what is out there for you. You start with a vision or an idea and make the next logical step.

Or you begin devoting small amounts of time to it. For example, when I started writing it was so difficult feeling for me that I could only do it in small chunks of time. I wrote a post about how 15 minutes a day changed my life.

I still believe that. Even 15 minutes focused in the direction you want to go will make a difference. It can even make a huge difference.

In the early days, I just did what I could to move the needle. Eventually, I gained experience, a body of work, and confidence that led to this being a sustainable way to make a living.

And no kidding, because I started with such a small amount of time where I could focus, I’ve learned to do a lot in small increments of time. This means that I don’t have to commute, I work part-time, and I make more than I made working fulltime with a master’s degree.

​Strong decisions

Making strong decisions give you a path and a filter. You may only be able to see a small part of the path, but that’s really all you need.

Many women will not even start of the path because they can’t see the entire thing. You don’t need to see the entire path. Just a little bit to get started with.

Here’s my hiking analogy. When I hike, I start at a trailhead. This is where we start and from there you can see a bit of the path.

As you start walking, you see more and more of the path as you go. You have to go around a bend to actually see what is around that bend.

But the path is marked and even though you don’t know everything along the way, you know there’s a cool vista at the end.

So, you look forward to the vista but you also enjoy the journey and seeing what is around each corner or at the top of each hill.

Fill your own cup

You gotta take care of yourself. When you spend all your time taking care of others, even grown adults, you often don’t have time to create the time of your life.

I know this sounds harsh but it’s true. Most of you are so busy trying to manage, control, and fix those around you, that you don’t have the bandwidth to even consider making time for yourself.

How do you fill your own cup? Make rest a priority. Spend time every single day doing things you enjoy. Eat the foods you love. Hang out with people you like and enjoy. Say no to things you don’t want to do even if it disappoints people.

Learn the language of your body and heart

Your body and heart have their own languages and really that’s where who you are resides. We usually think WE are our brain. But who we are is so much more than what we think.

Our spirits, body, heart, and soul hold the keys to our own happiness, satisfaction, and sense of meaning. Most of you have ignored your real being for so long she seems like a stranger.

Or you spent so many decades pushing her away, that she seems dangerous somehow.

I promise you this. All the good you crave in life is within you.

Move forward with love and trust

The trust is trusting yourself to do what’s best for you, even when you feel unsure.

Love is the feeling within that you can create no matter what is happening around you.

Love feels different in your body than, say duty. When you do things because you think you should, it’s a totally different vibe than when you do something out of love.

Your body will literally tell you. Love is often described as a sense of lightness, sparkly sensations, or a cozy warmness.

Duty often feels tight, compressed, squeezing, or even painful.

Test this out for yourself. Think of something you love where you have no conflicting feelings such as a beloved pet, a beautiful space, or a particular person.

Now tune into your body. Drop your attention to your body and do a scan for the sensations. Feel your heart. Make note of how love feels in your body.

Now think of something you think you should do but don’t really want to. Again scan your body. Common feelings my clients share are squeezing, pressure, tension, tightness, or burning.

Which one is better for your body?

You don’t just sacrifice your time when you do things out of duty, you are sacrificing your very own wellbeing.

Your Best Years are Ahead of You

I can’t give you back the way you looked when you were young or people you miss. However, I can plant the seed that you can still have an amazing life ahead.

And this starts right now!

You don’t need loads of proof. You don’t need to know exactly how. You don’t even need a solid plan.

All you need is a little belief and the courage to decide it will be.