3-0 is my magic number!

This song popped up on my i-pod on Wednesday as I drove home from work and it got me thinking about the lovely number 3.  Also, more importantly, it got me thinking about being in my 30s!


Although it's not so much the case anymore, there's still a certain sense of trepidation for those approaching their 30s.  It feels so... I don't even know how to explain it.  I wouldn't say I was negative about being 30, but my mortality started to become a lot more plausible when I turned 30 and I definitely felt like I was dropping off the hip, young bandwagon.  It also seemed like all those being lauded for their successes were in their teens, twenties or above forty. Thirty just seems like that middle child who, while loved, tends to get caught up and lost in the crowd.


I no longer feel like I have a style, the clothes stores are either too young or too old for me.  Even my hairdresser started to give me a hairstyle that made me feel more like I was forty.  So, I got a new hairdresser, but I still don't know how to dress! Mind you maybe that's something I've always had a problem with, I just cared less in my teens and twenties.


Then I really started to consider three as this 'magic number' and I realized that it could be if I allowed it to be.  


If I think about it:


1. In The Past - When I look back I realize that I spent a lot of my time under the age of 30 wishing I could grow up faster in order to achieve all those things that seem important, such as getting a driver's licence, getting to the drinking age, going out with boys, dancing through the night with friends and then going to get breakfast without having to answer to your parents.


2. In The Future - I hope I don't do this, but I know of a lot of people who reach their forties and look back wishing and thinking about all the things they would have done differently if they could.  Also, unless you've taken care of it, your body really starts to take a dive and it can seem like it's all downhill now that 'middle age' has hit.


I know those in the know say that 'middle age' is no longer a term that can be used for those hitting their forties simply because of all the advances that have been made in health and science, which have improved our lives and health so greatly.  This is wonderful news for those of us who won't reach our forties until well into the new millenium.  In addition, there are also so many positive role models out there (especially for women) of those who are well past what others may call their 'prime' who are still succeeding and achieving and having babies.  It definitely gives me hope.


But ultimately what I wanted to note was how important it is to use the thirties to their greatest potential - that of being present.  


3.  In The Present - Now I'm in my thirties I really want to spend as much time as I can improving my mental, spiritual and physical life in order to be as happy as is possible.  I don't want to waste a minute of the time I have before I reach forty when many of my dreams, such as having children may not easily happen.


This doesn't mean giving up or not achieving in order to live some zen life in a monastery on a mountain top (although kudos to you if you do that).  But I feel that in all the time time that it has taken me to get to my thirties a lot of the ways in which I was living were not working for me.  It's taken me till my thirties to realize this and also understand that I can change the way I live if I really want to.


Fair enough, I am not married and don't have kids, so I have a lot more time to spend being present this decade than others who were braver than I was and got married and had kids.  But the thirties definitely seem to be the best time to take a moment for pause.  Re-evaluate what is important to you.  Decide how you can become a better person for those in your life now, and for those in your live to come.  This in turn will then enable us to enter 'middle age' more gracefully having had the time for self reflection that so many people leave time for only on their death bed.


Therefore I propose that 3-0 really is a magic number in what is no longer the middle of our lives, but can still be considered so.  The thirties give us the chance to stand at the top of the plateau we have been climbing towards all through our younger years. We can stop, take stock and take the time to make sure that where this mountain is taking us is really where we want to go.


While I may still feel rather lost and confused as to who I am at this stage in my life, I know for sure that the chance to stay present and live a fuller life after some self-reflection is definitely the way I'd love to spend this important decade.


What about you?