Anyone else feel that time is running out

I get like this. It scares me because I feel I'm living the best days of my life with my close family and friends all well and happy.
I know it won't stay like this. I hope it's a long, long while before things change but it scares me anyway.

Thank you for replying. The utter exhaustion which is stopping me from adding “sort divorce” to my task list. The fear. The fact I will lose out financially and break my kids’ hearts. The first thing I need to do is sort myself out- I think I need HRT for perimenopause. I need to keep
working with my weight loss mentor to get healthier and I am hoping I am about to get a new job. Once I have worked on me, let’s see how I feel about the rest.

Yes I feel like this too but completely stuck to do anything about it. I'm 42 and completely lost in life. I love my DC and provide a comfortable lifestyle but I am lost and empty and scared of the time ticking so quickly. I am separated and feel I am failing in every way. I can't go forward or backward but the time just keeps on flying by.

Sympathise with everyone feeling like this.

I'm 45 in four days and have been feeling this since about 42.
Namely, fear that my 82 yo abusive parent won't die quickly enough, so I can take my inheritance, move back to my country of origin (without husband) and finally start living the way I want.
Without other people's faces in my home.
No children.
Dire, I know.

I feel the same, have felt like it for some time. But also, I know lots of people living near me in their 60s and 70s and several in the past year have lost their DPs, or they themselves have become ill. My DH isn't well and it's affected our travel - haven't had a holiday for years and I feel like I'm treading water. It's just dawned on me that I might have to look after him at some point. I also want to visit Scotland/Peru/Japan, do the Santiago trail, etc etc but time is running out. Pray for good health in your retirement so you can do stuff! But also, start now - bell ringing or belly dancing or whatever you've always fancied. But I think the most important thing is to keep up social relationships with friends and family.

What is keeping you in a situation that is making you unhappy? Could you take steps to make changes?

I’m sixty and yes, of course time is running out for everyone.

I have been fortunate to lead an amazing life including years working abroad and loads of travel. I have various failed relationships behind me though, as I just kept trying, not understanding that I am not happy coupled up. Single life the past 15 years has made me happy beyond belief.

I have two great young adult DC and a job I can do easily and that I enjoy. I have never had loads of money, but I have certainly lived a wonderful life.

If it all ended tomorrow I would think how much I had enjoyed it. Can you think of what you could do to ensure you make the most of what is left of your life? It’s difficult to be brutally honest with ourselves sometimes as we have to acknowledge uncomfortable truths and feelings. I wish you luck.

Same age as OP and I have similar feelings.

Time is running out, yes. It's your choice what to do with it. You can either waste it ruminating or you can do things you want to do.

I was 54 at the beginning of Covid. I’ll be 60 this year, DH was ill so we shielded more than most, we had about a year and then he’s been poorly ever since and recently passed.

life is not a dress rehearsal- crack on OP!

I've turned 60 and feel the same. I have knee problems and can't be as active and just feel like it's all downhill from here, in spite of having a job that I love and have some lovely friends and social activities

OP, there is a really good book called Die with Zero. The title sounds a bit scary, but it is very good about thinking about priorities and what to do with the time you have left. I wish you all the best.

I have these thoughts every single day, and I'm 39! I've always been the type to count down days until end of holidays etc. Almost like I know the end is inevitable, so can't fully enjoy the present. I seem to live a lot in the future, like I tell people I'm 40 by mistake, I guess because I'm imagining myself there already. I think of how fast the past 10 years have gone, and think of how many of those 10 year blocks I have left. I have such a fortunate and happy life, but the thoughts are always there. Sorry not helpful, but you are not alone.

We are mortal creatures. In your 50s, time gets to be more important than money. What is important to you, what do you want to accomplish? And, don’t waste your precious years ruminating and regretting.

If you want to travel, do it now. If you can early retire, do it and do what you need and want to do. No guarantees. I say this as I nearing 60. After seeing several friends and relatives pass away in the past five years, I woke up.

@middlewomanager You sound so sad, sending you hugs. You're not alone, I'm not coping either

@Rankandfile Yes, time is running out, I feel I'm existing atm rather than living what I actually have left. Unmumsnetty hugs x

Not sure you are getting the reassurance you weee hoping for on this thread @Rankandfile

But I suppose there are some good questions here such as whether there is anything you particularly feel you want to achieve?

I can relate to this. For me I think it's the realisation that I no longer have all the possibilities I had in my 20s.

It's not that I regret any of my choices - far from it- it's more that, with less time left, there are things that I'll never get to do.

I'll be 48 soon and whilst I don't have regrets as such (I didn't make the most of myself, didn't build a career, very much lacked confidence in myself in my youth - still do in many ways however I think I've been very fortunate overall) I am VERY aware now that time is ticking on and that I may only have x or y years left depending on how lucky I am and that several people I once knew didn't even make it to 40 I should count myself lucky. I feel like the last 10 - 15 years have flashed by in particular and I know that time is only going to move faster... (I asked my Dad, who has been retired for over 10 years if time still flashed by for him now and it was very much a yes). I keep thinking about how there is now more in the rear view mirror than in front so to speak, and wonder what my childrens lives will be like and will I get to see it. You might live healthily to 95 for all you know though (me too for that matter). What do you wish that you had done differently? Can you do any of these things now?

Is this what is known as a midlife crisis?

Like others have said; what do you want to achieve? A kind of bucket list before you get old? 💐

I think this normal once you get to 50, you realise you are more than halfway through your life. I am just glad i had my children when i was young, i have had time to enjoy them well into their adulthood, in fact one of mine is 40 soon and i am so glad i didn't wait until the age she is now to have her, i would have missed so much of her life. I am glad she had her children youngish as i have had the pleasure of grandchildren.
Try not to focus on that feeling to deeply but write that bucket list and do what you want to do.

Yes. It's horrible and started about 2 years ago (I'm 57).

You just enjoy things as normal then there's a reminder such as a survey and you realise your in the second to last age bracket or somebody on TV dies and you think 'that's only x amount if years away'.

Nothing we can do but make the most if enjoying things and pretend we might be the first immortal person 😂

Time is running out for everyone.

My issue really is that I want to do like long hikes and visit Scotland etc. but by the time I get time and freedom to do that, my knees will not allow it.. I should have done it when I was 20sonething.. not 50something.

I've made a few bad decisions in my life. I often wonder if my life would have been any better if I'd taken the other road. Then again, it could be far worse. These feelings are completely normal; it's what you decide to do with them that matters.

Me too. I am not coping. Yours and the OP’s post really resonates. I have wasted my late thirties and early forties on a marriage that has got increasingly unhappy. I have neither done enough for a career which has been fairly mediocre compared to where I could have been and have not enjoyed my time enough with my kids and really enjoyed the time as I have been so stressed being both the main breadwinner and running the home and by the selfishness of my husband. I feel like I have wasted a huge chunk of my life and time is running out for me.

I’m about to turn 46 and have started to have this feeling too, so maybe it’s an age thing.