For my entire life so far, I have thought of myself as having almost no limits on what I could accomplish.

With a happy family, a book (and many articles) written, a decent job that pays well, a house and a car, I have every reason to be thankful and content.

And I am.

I do, however, also realise that the book I always wanted to write will probably not be forthcoming, that I have probably topped my payscale, and that I won’t be buying that piece of woodland (or whatever) that I always dreamt about.

So, is this reality-check just a symptom of age? Or does more dreaming and working hard bring further rewards? (Personal catastrophes aside, of course. I am aware of fragility of life, and the countless people out there who suffer for whom this is a frivolous question.)

you’ve hit 40? I have, and your thoughts echo mine. 😉

So you’ve plateaued – your next decision is to stay at that level or push on and achieve a bit more. MTFU and get on with it.

Job, Wife, House, Car, Kids……..my work here is done, oh no wait! I haven’t had a life yet 🙄

Get out a session a difficult trail, when you start getting faster times you know you still have potential. 8)

@roady-tony: 40 indeed.

wobbem – Member
Get out a session a difficult trail, when you start getting faster times you know you still have potential.

That is a good idea.

I’m 31.
All down hill now 🙁

It depends in what area. In swimming I appear to have peaked age 11

I’m 31.
All down hill now

Right there with you… except that DH is the best part 🙂

Also: I’ll be doing an Ironman just after I turn 32, which is definitely the hardest thing I’ve done in my life so far. It’s all on the up 🙂

Also felt this as I hit 40 last year so I’ve enroled on an MSc course and aim to complete my first Ironman in 2014 (once I’ve mastered Front Crawl).
It’s inevitable that you plateau in some familiar areas but I find that shooting off at a tangent into something new is quite reinvigorating (now where is that unused guitar?).

I decided at 28 that I’d probably had the best part of my life. Now I’m 41 I’ve ticked all the obvious boxes and just want more free time really, any career ambitions disappeared a long time ago.

SaxonRider – Member
For my entire life so far, I have thought of myself as having almost no limits on what I could accomplish.

With a happy family, a book (and many articles) written, a decent job that pays well, a house and a car, I have every reason to be thankful and content.

Get out there and live you life in that case! God there’s so many things I want to do!

I don’t know about peaking, but I’m very conscious that life now gives me fewer opportunities to work at the stuff I want to get better at. That’s the sacrifice you make when you start a family.

You’re describing a bit of a fur-lined rut, saxonrider. Occupational hazard with the humanities, no one is ever going to tell you to stop sitting on your ringpiece.

Is the book you always wanted to write part of your professional output, or are you talking about writing a novel, say, distinct from your work?

The book I wrote is professional output. The book in my head is a novel.

FFS! You are only 40, you have a whole life to live! Stop moaning and get on with it. I have just turned 41 and I try and live every day to the fullest. After living a great deal of my thirties in debt, depression and despair about work etc, turning 40 re-invigorated me. I have a list in my head of things that I want to achieve. Things are going really great at the moment. Fantastic marriage(13 years), good job, lots of travel, paid all my debts off and best of all, I can now afford to buy bikes. My greatest fear is dying before I get everything done.

The best bit about a complete flat trajectory through life is that you can always say that you’re not past your peak 🙂

Pick some goals that you can achive.

You can always ride better, get fitter etc, so get on with it.

Bothering you, is it?

46 here and have nowhere near peaked yet!

Peaked at 40? You might as well curl up and go to sleep. MTFU and get out there, grab life by the bollocks and tell it what *YOU* want.

Regularly and I usually fall asleep shortly afterwards.

At windsurfing yes definitely, at snowboarding, probably, at kitesurfing, not sure think there’s more to come, don’t get out often enough. At sailing a dinghy no definitely not, still got lots to learn, finally if you’d asked me a couple of years back wether I’d peaked at riding a mountain bike I’d have said yes definitely, then I got born again on a run called ‘crank it up’ following that Geoff Gullevitch fella in Whistler, and then had the good sense to go on a course with Tony Doyle AKA jedi here and realised 1)I aint dead just yet and 2) there’s still stacks more to learn about riding a bike..

I’ll be 65 next birthday.

I think I peaked when I was 3 years old. It has been all downhill from there really.

So you’ve plateaued – your next decision is to stay at that level or push on and achieve a bit more. MTFU and get on with it.

DOH!

I agree with Glupton!

Yeah great innit? The pressure is off so start enjoying life.

You never know what is round the corner, 2 years ago I was turning 40 and staring down the barrel of an ok job but a life which appeared to have peaked. A ballsy decision (for me) means that has all changed, I’m my own boss, have an income that means I can do the things I want to do and my stress is nowhere to be seen. I can see a real and exiting future that only a few years ago wasn’t even a dream, keep the faith you never know where you may find yourself!

I’m peaking right now

Im 37 now so closing in on the big 4, 0.

I dont feel that Ive “peaked” but I might occasionally think that I dont have it in me to get much “better at something”. So I pick something new to learn/experience and mine that seam for a while.

case in point, after playing hockey goal keeper for over 15 years (and the last of those at quite a high level) at the end of one season I felt that I just didnt want the “win” as much any more and it was taking me more than a week to recover from the previous weekend’s match. So I stopped playing and took up umpiring.

Whilst I still appreciate the work I do in my primary career, Im concious that there’s a limit to how little challenge there is to discover in it, so im most of the way through an evening plumbing and heating diploma that will lead on to an NVQ2 and then hopefully into biomass specification/installations.

Ive also taken to cutting down trees in a big way. 🙂

A phenomenon I do fear is rather well put by Alan Clark in one of his later diaries:

“I didnt realise it at the time, but I did something for the last time today”

Makes me cold thinking about it.

Yes, I have realised that I’m on the downhill slope at 56. I’m still amongst the fittest one percent of the population but recovery takes longer and it’s harder to keep up the muscle tone. Intellectually I’m lsss sharp, I’m growing man boobs and seldom get erections and my marriage is rubbish. My life is going nowhere and I need to sleep after lunch.

I’m 42, and just getting warmed up. And I had a riotous 20’s and 30’s. Loads to do. Getting a road bike and hanging out with lesbians changed my life.

Getting a road bike

Keep Hebden weird.

hanging out with lesbians

those people know how to party.

*Hi fives IGRF*

38 and life just keeps giving. Keep the faith amigo.