I Have Turned `3` Today

I Have Turned `3` Today
For the record 43, but life begins at 40!

I write this in the morning hours of the day and this birthday is already coming through as a special one. We had a spot celebration at Barista past midnight with my wife's cousins, followed by a decent number of SMSes and phone calls this morning. And of course the facebook messages are already swelling up. I thank God from the bottom of my heart for all the lovely people I am blessed with in my life.

No doubt, life in the last three years since I decided to start out on my own has been tough, but fascinating to the core. It has opened up a whole new set of opportunities and brought me in contact with an incredible number of wonderful people. And the most important thing is I have never felt more young.

The reason for this is that somewhere along the journey of life I realised that life in a substantial and clear way begins only at 40. It was in my fortieth year (June 2009 to be precise) that I decided to quit my well paying job with a respected profile and attempt to recreate myself. The premise of my first book `The 20 20 20 20 Formula For Success` (co-authored with my friend Samuel Talari) was that a life of great purpose takes shape once you turn 40, as it takes that many years for many people to understand life from its depths and shape their role on this planet. In the first forty years, in slots of 20 years each, life shows us both its comfortable and uncomfortable sides. By the time we turn 40, a greater sense of perspective and maturity sets in, thereby placing us on the path of a deeper purpose.

Nature has gifted us with automatic physical growth. We play no role in how our face and physical structure evolves. Therefore, our primary responsibility is to acknowledge the power of being born as a human being and make it count. God has given us a mind and intellect, and he expects us to utilise them effectively to evolve as better life managers. When we touch 40, we reasonably outgrow viewing life from a predominantly physical perspective and start looking at it from a larger sense of consciousness. The true turning point of life is when we start seeing life with a purpose driven perspective, and not just from a paradigm of going through the motions.

Looked at in this way, age appears to be just a number. Age actually presents an opportunity to reinvent yourself and is definitely not a roadblock to your success. I tell people above 40 not to feel disheartened if they have not achieved anything substantial thus far, for `we are born` at 40 and they must count their age from thereon. If you look around, you will find that many people have achieved great things after turning 40. So, rather than feeling a kind of midlife crisis, this is the age when our youthful energies should manifest with renewed vigour and take us to heights like never before. For those who are under 40, I tell them, life has not even started, and many more enriching experiences are in store.

It is far better to succeed a little late in life and stay that way till the end than acquire success early and see it slipping away. In today's world we see too many people succeed too early and then struggle to hold on to it. This does not mean that people below forty should not strive for or achieve success earlier than many, but it helps to understand that success once attained also has to be sustained. Therefore, with early success also comes the responsibility to sustain it. And in any case, success is a continuous journey and not a destination.

All in all, life has so much to offer. All we need to do is keep our mind young always and allow the process of life to shower its unlimited abundance on us. Rather than feeling that every birthday is a step closer to death, create the feeling that every birthday is a more mature step towards fulfilling our life purpose. That way, you will acquire a bounce in your steps that will elevate you to a different level in life – each day, each year.

I have just turned 3 today. What's your age?