The Year of 40

This week I leave for a 40^th birthday trip with two of my best friends in the world and all of our husbands. We all recently turned 40 and have known each other more than half of those years. We landed on Cartagena, Colombia, based on needing somewhere we could explore in a shorter amount of time (based on children and work demands), and we have heard rave reviews from other friends that have gone. We have an amazing itinerary (that I was zero help on but will share later on Eat. Stay. Play), and the fashion scene in that part of the country is incredible right now (think Agua Bendita, Leal Decarrett, Silvia Tcherassi).

I knew heading into January that I planned on making this whole year about celebrating the new decade’s milestone. Mostly because, why not? But also because of how much looking back and looking forward means to me. I’ve shared that one of my favorite times of the whole year is the days leading up to New Year’s and then New Year’s Day. I’m extremely intentional about reflecting on what’s happened, good and bad, and what I want more and less of in the year to come. I’m a sucker for vision boards and journals and all the things. But it is foremost an inner process for me and something I try to metabolize deeply. So for turning 40, it’s been similar, just on a larger scale. Both the celebrations, of course—more this week on KK Daily on what’s transpired so far—but also the looking backwards and forwards. As I’ve reflected on the decade before this, I’ve laughed and cried about how unusually and unexpectedly difficult it was. There were amazing things, of course, but it seemed like nearly ten years of climbing uphill, both personally and professionally.

But I also still haven’t finished surveying all of it, nor have I finished setting my goals and intentions for the next decade. That’s been the beauty of giving myself a year for all things 40. I’m only now kind of half way through all of it—the parties and the trips (one goal I set was being out of the country for 40 days this year, something I’m well on my way to), a few gifts I’ve decided on for myself (more on that this week too), but mostly the reflection and the vision casting. It’s like living in those days I love so much around New Year's, but for 365 days. I highly recommend it.