40 Things To Do at 40: The Full List for My 40th Year
- Fiona Green
- Feb 24
- 9 min read
If you read Part 1 (and if you haven’t, catch up here), you’ll know this isn’t just a random turning 40 bucket list pulled from the internet.
It’s not a productivity plan or a New Year's resolution dressed up in prettier language. And it’s definitely not a set of SMART goals pretending to be “ideas for your 40th birthday.”
I don’t really work like that anymore.
I’m led by instinct. By my gut. By the seasons shifting and the moon moving something inside me.
So this list of 40 things to do at 40 isn’t about achievement.
It’s about awe.
It’s about wonder.
And most importantly, it’s about joy.
It’s about deliberately stepping outside the well-worn paths of my comfort zone and saying yes to things that feel slightly inconvenient, slightly awkward or slightly brave.
Writing blogs about them and filming videos of them is part of that stretch. Adding more to my plate isn’t something I naturally gravitate towards. I value balance. Slow living. Space.
But this doesn’t feel like pressure.
It feels like play. And I definitely want more play in my life.
It feels like choosing to live my 40th year with my eyes open.
So here it is.
My very own, slightly chaotic, deeply intentional list of 40 things to do at 40.
Adventure & Wandering
Over the past few years of hiking the Dales and the Lakes, I’ve realised I’m not really a peak-bagger (although I do own a Wainwright tick-off map!).
I’m more of a wanderlust wanderer.
A seeker.
I love mountains. I love being up high and seeing the world stretch out in front of me. But I don’t need to dangle myself off terrifying ridges to prove anything.
Steep drops can still trigger panic in my body, and I’ve learned to respect that rather than fight it.
What I really love is the wandering.
The patterns in the landscape. The mushrooms tucked into damp woodland corners. The way the wind brushes past your fingertips when you pause long enough to notice it. The sound of birdsong that you only hear when you stop trying to conquer the hill and just stand there.
So this part of my 40 things to do at 40 list is nothing to do with adrenaline.
It’s about paying attention.
Take a trip to Cambridge to see dear friends I met on holiday in Lanzarote last year
Climb Snowdon
See Hadrian’s Wall
Paddle in a loch
Sleep in a campervan
Eat pizza in Italy
Have a day at Alton Towers
Go up a hill for sunrise
Have a day of nothing by a waterfall
Some of these are big. Some are simple. But all of them are about stepping out of routine and remembering how wide the world is.
Italy, for example, has been on my big bucket list for years. There are plenty of other countries I’d love to see too, but we’re not made out of money.
And I don’t need a gap year in Bali to discover myself.
Some of the most profound moments I’ve had have been on my own doorstep. In the Dales. In the Lakes. In a quiet stretch of land five miles from home.
Sometimes wanderlust seeking isn’t about distance...
It’s about really noticing.
Creativity & Making
For years, I told myself I wasn’t really a creative person.
Which is ironic, considering I write for a living and my business is called The Creative Copywriter!
But in my head, creativity meant being good at art.
Producing something impressive. Having a finished product that looked like it belonged on a shelf somewhere. And if I couldn’t do that perfectly, I’d rather not do it at all.
Perfection has a way of strangling creativity before it even gets started.
It’s only recently that I’ve realised creation isn’t always about the final piece. Sometimes it’s about the process. The flow. The losing-track-of-time-ness of it all.
A dear friend of mine gently opened my eyes to that.
She showed me that creating can be as simple as the meals I cook from scratch. The way I layer flavours. The care I put into setting a table. The way my hands move without thinking when I’m fully absorbed.
Creation isn’t always a masterpiece.
Sometimes it’s just being completely in it.
When you’re in total flow and awe of what you’re making, something shifts. The world quietens. Your thoughts slow down. You don't check your phone. You forget what time it is.
And THAT is where the joy lies.
It's the bedrock of my CIC Creative Wild Women and so this part of my turning 40 bucket list is about letting go of the outcome and falling back in love with the act of making.
Write a book
Get a new tattoo
Do a life drawing class
Exhibit in an exhibition
Paint by numbers
Have a go at crochet
Get better at breadmaking
Create a big flower section in the allotment
Get more creative with my home and add a bit of whimsy
Do a 1000-piece jigsaw
Some of these feel bold. Some feel slightly ridiculous. Some feel like I might be absolutely terrible at them.
But good. Because this isn’t about proving I’m talented.
It’s about practising being in flow.
It’s about remembering that creativity isn’t something reserved for “artists.”
It’s something we all touch every day, if we let ourselves.
And at 40, I’m choosing to let myself.
Motherhood & Memory-Making
In Part 1, I talked about the catalyst that becoming a mother was for change in my life.
At first, it felt like everything was falling apart.
Now I can see the bigger picture. I can see where it was guiding me.
Motherhood can feel like a loss of identity. I know a lot of women feel that. This idea that you were someone before, and now you are “just” a mum.
But I don’t see it as separate anymore.
It’s all woven together.
My son Ted is not only my son. He’s my best friend. He’s my greatest teacher. I often use the phrase #bemoreted because the way he moves through the world is something most adults could learn from.
And I love spending time with him.
Which brings me to something that winds me up slightly...
Who decided that the best structure for family life was rushing around in the morning, sending kids off to be taught by someone else who may or may not share your values, while parents head out to earn money for someone else… only to try and squeeze precious connection into exhausted weekends filled with food shopping, cleaning and the million other things we’re expected to juggle?
That is not how our lives should be.
Time together is the single most precious thing we have.
I don’t run my life like that.
I run my own businesses. I prioritise balance. I prioritise my wellbeing. And that is reflected in the time I spend with my son.
And so, this part of my 40 things to do at 40 list is woven with him in mind.
Not because motherhood is my whole identity. But because it is part of it.
And thinking about other people who I love to spend my time with...
Take my son to the Natural History Museum
Fly a kite with my son
Take my son to a festival
Camp in Neena’s back garden
Go on a girls’ camping trip with Helen
Have a picnic dinner outside at sunset
Run a successful retreat with my two best friends.
None of these are particularly extravagant, and some might question why they’re on my list…
They’re on there because they are the kinds of moments that become the stories we tell years later.
And at 40, that matters more to me than anything else.
Learning, Stretching & Slight Discomfort
I’ve always been an avid learner.
Courses. Certifications. New ideas. I’ve rarely gone a year without studying something.
But if I’m honest, a lot of that learning in the past was about advancement. About adding another string to the bow. About staying sharp and staying relevant.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But at this time of my life, learning feels different.
One of the biggest things on this turning 40 bucket list is completing my Wilderness Therapy Interventions training.
It has taken me 40 years to understand what I actually want to do in this world. The impact I want to have. The way I want to hold space for people.
Everything I’ve done up to this point has mattered. I wouldn’t change a single chapter because it led me here.
But training as a wilderness psychotherapist feels like everything coming together.
Not just a psychotherapist. Not just someone who talks about nature.
But someone who can physically and mentally guide someone through structured, evidence-based support in the natural world.
There’s solid research behind this work. Ecotherapy and nature-based interventions are increasingly recognised for supporting anxiety, depression and trauma recovery.
But beyond the science, there’s something older at play.
Something our ancestors knew without needing data to back it up.
And that’s where the rest of this section comes in.
Because not all learning needs to come with a certificate at the end.
Some of it is about remembering...
Try fishing
Do a foraging afternoon
Try acupuncture
Learn a dance
Try a food I’ve never had before
Go to a museum or gallery I’ve never been to
Get a 365-day streak on Spanish Duolingo
Spend 24 hours totally alone with no TV or phone
Some of these stretch me in small ways. Some nudge me out of routine.
Foraging. Fishing. Acupuncture. Sitting alone without distraction.
They tap into something slower. Older. More instinctive.
If the first half of my life was about building and proving and achieving…
I think the second half is about remembering and refining.
And learning in ways that feel deeply grounded, not rushed.
Home, Roots & Slower Living
The first part of this list stretches me outward...
So, this final part needs to pull me inward.
Over the past few years, I’ve realised that slower living isn’t about doing less.
It’s about doing things differently.
There’s almost a strange toxicity around “slow living” online sometimes...
Perfectly curated homes, linen outfits and a pristine woman doing yoga at 2pm on a Tuesday with not a single dirty pot on the kitchen counter.
That’s not real life. That’s not my life. And I’m sure its not yours either.
Slower living, for me, isn’t about aesthetic calm.
It’s about intention.
It’s about choosing what actually matters and letting the rest fall away where possible.
It’s about building a life that doesn’t constantly feel like it’s running away from you.
So this final part of my 40 things to do at 40 list feels the most grounded of all.
Create a meditation/women’s circle space in my cellar
Make the summer house at the allotment fit for purpose
Grow something new
Write a letter to someone who lives far away
Read 24 books (double last year)
None of these will change the world. But they will change my days.
Slower living isn’t about escaping responsibility. It’s about reshaping it.
It’s about noticing where your time goes and choosing, where you can, to spend it in ways that feel rooted rather than reactive.
If my turning 40 bucket list says anything, I hope it says this:
I want more depth. And depth takes time.
40 things to do at 40: The decade of attention, not reinvention
When I first started thinking about 40 things to do at 40, I wondered whether it would feel forced.
Whether I was just creating something because turning 40 feels like it should mean something big and dramatic and life-altering.
But the more I’ve sat with it, the more I realise this isn’t about reinvention at all.
It’s about attention.
Attention to the things I say I care about but don’t always prioritise.
Attention to the places on my own doorstep that I’ve walked past a hundred times without properly noticing.
Attention to the friendships that deserve more time.
Attention to the quieter parts of myself that don’t shout for recognition but are there all the same.
If you’re reading this because you’re looking for ideas for your 40th birthday, or because you typed “turning 40 bucket list” into Google, wondering what you’re supposed to do with this milestone, I can’t tell you what your list should look like...
But I can tell you that mine isn’t about becoming someone new.
It isn’t about squeezing productivity out of another decade.
It isn’t about proving that I’ve “made it” by 40.
It’s about choosing to live this year with a bit more awareness. A bit more curiosity. A bit more willingness to try things that feel slightly uncomfortable or slightly joyful or slightly inconvenient.
Some of these things will be brilliant. Some might be a big flop. Some might quietly become part of the fabric of my life without any fanfare at all.
And that’s fine.
Because this turning 40 bucket list is just a conscious decision to say: I’m here. I’m 40. I’m lucky enough to be 40. And I don’t want to rush through it.
So over the next year, I’ll be working my way through these 40 things to do at 40 in my own time, in my own way, sharing the awkward bits as well as the lovely ones.
If you were to write your own list (whether you’re turning 40 or not), what would it include?
What actually matters to you?
Comments