To those in your 40s and 50s. Your life is about to reach its culmination. 5 resolutions to make the second half of your life shine.

Good morning.

This is Tenmame.

Today, I am writing a letter that I truly want to deliver to you, who are in your 40s and 50s.

If right now, somewhere in your heart, you are thinking,

I'm not young anymore,
It's hard to change significantly from here on out,
My life is probably just going to be like this,

If you are starting to limit your future in such a way, please give me just a little bit of your time.

Your 40s and 50s are not an age where the value of your life diminishes.

Your body is not the same as it was when you were young.
The burdens you carry have increased.
Matters regarding parents, children, money, and your own health.

There may be days when you feel that the time you can use freely has decreased.

Even so, I believe that it is precisely because of this age that you can finally choose your life again with your own will.

When I was young, I was desperate to meet expectations.

I worked to protect my family.
I pushed myself to be recognized in the workplace.
Even when I was hurt or frustrated, I moved forward without even the luxury of stopping.

At least for me, the time in my 20s, 30s, and up to my mid-40s was a time whose meaning I only understood when looking back later.

Things I couldn't do well.
The embarrassment I couldn't tell anyone about.
The mistakes I repeated over and over.
The nights I blamed myself, wondering why I couldn't just be normal like everyone else.

Each one of those things makes up the words I use today.

I am by no means a person who has lived life skillfully.

ADHD and HSP temperament.

Adjustment disorder and depression.

Unable to fit into society well, and every time I made a mistake at work,

I wondered, 'Am I somehow broken?'

I thought that many times.

There were times when I felt suffocated just by getting on the train, and I would get off one station before my office.

I wanted to protect my family, but my own mind and body were breaking down first.

I wondered if I was already finished as a father and as a husband.

There was a night when I truly thought so.

In my 20s, 30s, and 40s, I found myself unable to continue working many times, and if you combine my leaves of absence and periods of unemployment, I have been away from society for over five years.

The experience of being broken does not in itself make a person stronger.

What was painful was simply painful.

If I could, I would have preferred not to experience it.

Even so, when you re-examine that pain in your own words, it can change into something that reaches someone else who is suffering in the same place.

The reason I can now accept people's worries more deeply than before is because I myself was unable to live well.

There are places that cannot be reached by vanity or titles alone.

However,

I was the same,
I couldn't move from there either,
Even so, my life changed little by little.

The words of someone who can say that have the power to ensure that a person who is feeling weak is not left alone.

The charm of being in your 40s and 50s is not that you are complete.

It is that while being hurt, lost, and making mistakes,

I don't want to end it like this,

you have not yet let go of that feeling.

Today, I will share with you '5 resolutions' to take back your life into your own hands from here on out.

1. For once, try doubting the idea that it's "too late"

First, just for today, please try to doubt it.

That voice inside you saying, "It's too late."

Because I'm not young anymore.
Because it's too late to start now.
Because it would be embarrassing to try and fail.
Because I can't compete with young people.

Is that really true?

There are things you have lost because you have aged.

But there are also things you could only have gained by aging.

The ability to imagine the pain of others.
Knowing that failing doesn't mean your life is over.
Being able to think about the feelings behind words, not just the surface meaning.

That is a strength different from youth.

I started my note when I was 45, in the winter.

At the bottom of despair, in a blank notebook,

"Let me try living with my own words once more"

That was the one line I wrote to begin.

Five years have passed since then.

My note followers have exceeded 28,000, and over 1,600 people have taken my courses on Udemy. Now, starting from my note, I generate a stable seven-figure income every month, and I live by my own words, unbound by time or place.

I don't want to boast about these numbers.

Even starting from the winter of my 45th year, my life truly moved forward.

That is the fact I want to convey.

The words of those in their 40s and 50s carry a weight that only those who have lived through experience can produce.

You know pain.
You know failure.
Even if someone is smiling, you can notice when they are pushing themselves too hard.

That feeling is not a flaw.

It will become an important strength when you deliver your words to someone from now on.

Your life still holds far too much for you to decide that it is "too late."

2. Take down the "Under Preparation" sign

I'll do it after I study a little more.
I'll do it after I save a little more money.
I'll do it after I gain some confidence.
I'll do it after my life settles down.

I understand that feeling well.

You don't want to fail.
You don't want to burden your family.
You are afraid that if you start and don't continue, you will end up hating yourself again.

That is why you keep preparing.

But preparation has no end.

Once you learn one thing, you find the next thing you don't know.

Even if you think you will act after you gain confidence, confidence rarely comes before you act.

I have received consultations from over 200 people so far.

There, I have heard these words many times:

"I wish I had consulted you sooner."

It was not because they were prepared that they were able to act.

Because they tried acting, they realized what they were lacking.
They also realized they could do more than they thought.
They met people they could not have met on their own.

It is not only big decisions that change your life.

Write one article.
Contact someone you wanted to meet.
Take one course you wanted to learn from.
Try speaking your true feelings to someone.

Even while remaining incomplete, those who choose that first step will see what to do next.

It is not that you cannot act because you are not prepared enough; it is that as long as you do not act, you will not even know what you should prepare.

3. Leave behind not just money, but "people" and "words"

When you reach your 40s and 50s, you have more things to protect.

Retirement funds.
Health checkup results.
Mortgage payments.
Caring for aging parents.
Children's career paths.
Anxiety about when you can no longer work.

Money is necessary.

Health and preparation are also necessary.

I personally take very seriously the work of making words my profession and creating income that can protect my family.

However, there are nights that money alone cannot help you overcome.

When you fall ill.
When you lose your job.
When you no longer know who you are.

At such times, you can be saved by your connections with people and the words your past self left behind.

I have become convinced of this over the past five years.

The record of how you have lived becomes a great asset later on.

Diaries.
Drafts on note.
Notes on your smartphone that you never showed anyone.
Words you wrote to keep yourself together during difficult times.

At the moment you write them, they may seem useless.

But that does not mean they have no value.

It just means you haven't found their meaning yet.

What were you hurt by back then?
What did you want to protect?
Whose words saved you?
How did you truly want to live?

When you reread your records, events that once seemed like isolated dots can sometimes connect into a single line.

And the words you wrote for yourself can, years later, save someone else who is struggling with the same thing.

Words you pass on to others will come back around to support you.

I believe that those who are truly wealthy in the second half of their lives are those who leave behind not just money, but relationships with people and proof of how they have lived.

4. Instead of hiding your weaknesses, turn them into words

When I was young, I wanted to be seen as someone who was capable.

Capable at work.
Reliable.
Able to protect my family.
Never complaining.

I felt I had to be that kind of person.

But people are not truly saved when they see someone else's perfection.

“Oh, this person struggled too.”
“This person failed many times too.”
“Yet, they made it this far.”

It is when they realize that.

What I have written on note is not just stories of success.

The mornings I headed to work while vomiting in the entryway.

The nights I could only say “I'm sorry” while holding my second son.

Feeling pathetic for being unable to do anything, and crying alone after my family had fallen asleep.

I hesitated many times, wondering if it was okay to write about such things.

But for those writings,

“It felt like you were writing about me.”
“I feel like you put into words the feelings I couldn't tell anyone.”

I began to receive comments like these.

Weakness does not automatically become valuable just by showing it.

Just listing your wounds only makes both you and the reader suffer.

However, when you look back on those experiences and,

“What was I feeling at that time?”
“What was I trying to protect?”
“What do I want to convey to those in the same place now?”

when you can put even that into words, weakness transforms into an experience that supports others.

Your detours are nothing to be ashamed of.

There is no need to hide or erase the times you were clumsy or the times you stopped in your tracks.

When you embrace those experiences in your own words, something that only you can write is born.

Your 40s and 50s are not an age to become perfect.

They are an age to stop pretending your life didn't happen and to accept it in its entirety.

5. Do not treat every day as a 'waiting period'

I truly want to live a healthy life until I am 100 years old.

Even so, I know that life is not infinite.

That is why I do not want to treat today,

as a 'waiting period until I can finally start doing what I really want to do'.

I don't want it to be that.

Life is too precious to spend working solely for the purpose of being recognized by others.

The time you have left is too valuable to keep suppressing your true feelings for the sake of appearances.

There are things you actually want to try.

There are people you want to see.

There are words you want to convey.

There are dreams you have never been able to give up on.

It is not that you have run out of things you want to do.

It may just be that you have become accustomed to putting your own wishes on the back burner while prioritizing work, family, caregiving, and anxieties about daily life.

You do not need to change everything.

Contact the people you want to see.
Write just one line about something you wanted to write.
Look into something you wanted to try.
Say that you like what you like.

Little by little, bring your own wishes back into your life.

Even just doing that will change the meaning of your days.

"That person became most like themselves after turning 50."

Such a life is not just for special people.

Through the choices you make from here on, anyone can create it.

Try writing just one line today.

Today, whether on paper or your smartphone, try writing just one line.

"How do I actually want to live from now on?"

It doesn't have to be a grand answer.

I want to quit my job.
I want to spend more time with my family.
I want to try writing.
I want to go on a trip by myself.
I want to use my experience to help someone.

There is no need to show it to anyone.

What you need right now is not a big decision, but to not ignore that one line yourself.

You have the time you have lived up to this point.

There are things you have protected.

There are things you have held onto until today, even while being hurt.

What is needed to re-choose your life is not necessarily something newly given from the outside.

It already remains within you.

Your records will become your "second brain".

I believe the first step to reclaiming your life is not to discard the past, but to pick it back up.

The diaries I have written until now.

Articles on note.

Drafts that stopped halfway.

A few lines of notes left on my smartphone.

In them remain wishes that my current self has forgotten, worries I have repeated many times, and experiences that can be shared with others.

However, the more records I have, the less I know what I wrote and where.

I don't even have time to reread them.

I also cannot see how my experiences connect to articles or work.

I myself have felt that difficulty for a long time.

So now, while using Obsidian, Cursor, ChatGPT, and Claude, I am finishing a new Udemy course on growing the records I have written into a 'second brain' that AI can reference.

It is not to make AI write text in my place.

It is so that I do not lose sight of what I feel, what I value, and what kind of experiences I can deliver to whom.

If it passes the review, I plan to release it at a launch commemorative price for five days starting July 17th.

I will share the details with you again.

Sometimes you cannot see your own value alone

Many of the people who come to me say this at first.

'I don't have any experience worth sharing.'
'No matter what I write, there is no reaction.'
'I don't know what about me is useful to others.'

But when I actually listen to their stories, there is no one who truly has nothing.

Supporting their family for a long time.

Having been kind to someone even while being hurt in the workplace.

The fact that you have experienced illness and setbacks, and yet have continued to live your life.

The fact that you could not give up on what you love, and have kept it protected somewhere in your heart.

What may seem like "ordinary things" to you can sometimes be the very stories that someone else, struggling in the same place, desperately wants to hear.

The value of your own life is sometimes too close to you to see.

That is why, in my consultation sessions, I do not teach the "correct answer." Instead, I work with you to discover the experiences, wishes, and deliverable value you already possess, hidden within the life you thought had "nothing."

What should I write?

Who do I want to reach?

What kind of work can I grow this into?

I listen carefully for 30 minutes, and by the next morning, I write and deliver a roadmap tailored specifically for that person.

This is because I do not want the feelings you have right after we talk to end as a fleeting moment of excitement.

If you read today's post and thought,

"I want to properly put my own life into words for once," "I want to shape my experiences into something I can pass on to others," or "I don't want to end things without starting anything,"

I have provided a link to my free email newsletter for you.

I share what I have tested, failed at, and rebuilt myself, starting with a 5-day email series.

Just because you sign up does not mean you have to decide anything immediately.

First, please try reading my words for five days.

After that,

only when you feel,

"I would like to share my story with this person," please come to the exclusive individual consultation session for subscribers.

Read the free email newsletter

I cannot decide your life for you.

However, before you decide that you have nothing, I can help you find the unused value within the time you have lived so far.

Your 40s and 50s are not too late.

This does not mean that you can easily do anything at any age.

There are things you have lost and things that have become more difficult.

Even so, you can choose how to use the experience you have gathered until now from here on out.

Your life is about to reach its culmination.

It is not because you are nearing the end.

It is because you can finally connect everything you have protected, endured, loved, and lived through while feeling lost, and begin to pass it on to someone else.

I am rooting for you with all my heart on the day you choose that first step.

Tenmame