Fifty Ways to Turn 50

How to Celebrate a Milestone Baby Boomer Birthday

Sep 10, 2009 Ellen Freudenheim

The big Five-Oh. It's supposed to be just another birthday -- but who's kidding whom? Here are 50-plus ideas for boomers to celebrate and do more than just survive it.

Even with centenarians one of the fastest growing cohorts in America, and even if "50 is the new 40," the prospect of turning 50 can seem a mixed blessing.

But it isn't what a person's chronological age is, rather it's how a person ages, as the saying goes.

For mental and physical well-being, a milestone birthday is a great chance to tie up loose threads, break bad habits and start healthy new ones, and move ahead.

Make a Career Move

Plan for the next career phase. Go back to school. Take an aptitude test. Start a home-based business.

Have an Adventure

Do something different: auto-racing school, long distance hiking or biking. Some people take a wilderness adventure, or go camping for the first time.

Take Care of the Body

Get a massage, lose five pounds, invest in teeth-bleaching, stop smoking, drink less soda and eat more vegetables, start doing 25 sit-ups in the morning, get a physical and go to the gym. Train for a triathlon.

Take Care of the Mind

Learn a foreign language or take a course at the local college. Read that book.

Take Care of the Soul

Especially in transitions, it’s helpful to tend to one’s spirituality, in whatever form that takes. Pray, or read poetry or meditate.

Clean Up

Toss those old clothes, books, and photos; make way for something new. Rearrange the furniture or buy something new. Change the photos on the wall. Organize the finances online, once and for all.

Express Oneself

Sing in the shower. Start that novel. Build a website. Make a mural. Take up the kazoo or the piano.

Give Back

Volunteer at the local school. Deliver Meals on Wheels. Help clean up the local park. Volunteer to help rebuild New Orleans.

Focus on Staying Healthy

It’s not much fun, but schedule a mammogram, a colonoscopy, and make sure that all paperwork such as guardianships, wills, advance directives and living wills are in order.

Invest in Love

Depending on one’s circumstances, birthdays can be a time to pamper one’s partner, find a lover, or finish a bad relationship. Or, get a pet.

Pamper and Be Pampered

Get a massage or a manicure, buy something new, or stay in bed until noon.

Travel

When making transitions, its helpful to get a change of scenery. Take a train ride, go to a Broadway show or a Hawaiian beach, or if you've never been, visit Washington DC.

Travel Back in Time

Get in touch with old friends and long-lost relatives. Mend broken relationships. Visit an old haunt, whether that's a bar, a beach or high school football field.

Have a Birthday Party

Team up with a bunch of other frightened forty-niners and celebrate a century or two. Or find 19 friends and make it a millennium. Use Facebook, to dredge up old flames, old enemies, even a distant relative or two. Regress and have a kid’s birthday party with a clown and play musical chairs.

For baby boomers, turning 50 is a milestone event, a turning point. The half-century mark is an opportune moment to reinvent oneself, invest in staying healthy while aging--and have a heck of a birthday party.

The copyright of the article Fifty Ways to Turn 50 in Mind/Body Fitness is owned by Ellen Freudenheim. Permission to republish Fifty Ways to Turn 50 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

50 is Time for an Adventure.