Is it too late to start something new at forty?
No: if you start something at forty and keep at it, you can easily have twenty or thirty years of doing it ahead of you, which is longer than most people's whole careers in it. Adults also bring real advantages: patience, a clearer sense of what they enjoy and usually more ability to pay for lessons, and the only thing that is genuinely late is the chance to have started earlier.
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The worry usually arrives as a sum. "If I start the cello now, I'll be fifty before I'm any good." Fair enough. But you will be fifty anyway. The only question is whether you'll be fifty and playing the cello, or fifty and still wondering about it.
Do the maths the other way round
People tend to count how far behind they are. Try counting how far ahead the road goes. Start something at forty, and ten years in you're fifty with a decade of practice. Twenty years in, you're sixty and have been at it longer than many people stick with any hobby at all. Plenty of people take up painting, running, sailing or a language and do it for the rest of their lives; it would be a very strange rule that said those decades only count if they began at twelve.
The comparison to people who started young is also a bit of a trick. You aren't competing with them. You're competing with the version of you who didn't start, and you're already ahead of that one.
What adults bring
Starting late is not just a handicap to overcome. Grown-ups arrive with some useful kit:
- Patience. You've learned that most worthwhile things take time, and you are less likely to give up the first week something gets hard.
- Self-knowledge. You know whether you prefer mornings or evenings, groups or solitude, structure or tinkering. That makes it much easier to set up practice you'll actually keep.
- Choice. Nobody is making you do this. Starting by choice tends to feel different from being sent to lessons.
- Resources. Often a bit more money for a good teacher, the right kit or a course, and a better sense of which of those is worth paying for.
- Experience of learning. You've learned a job, maybe a city, maybe how to run a household. Those skills transfer: breaking things down, asking for help, keeping going through the dull bit.
What's genuinely harder
Honesty helps here. Time is usually tighter, with work and families to fit around. Some physical activities may need a gentler start than they would at twenty, and if you have any doubts it's sensible to talk to a doctor first. The biggest obstacle, though, is often pride: being visibly bad at something in public when you are good at plenty else. Our page on being a beginner as an adult is written for exactly that.
How to start well
- Pick something you'd enjoy being mediocre at. If you only want to do it if you're excellent, the pressure will push the fun out. If you'd enjoy it at a modest level, you're on safe ground.
- Get a teacher early. A few lessons at the beginning save months of bad habits, and teachers of adult beginners have seen everything.
- Find your people. Adult classes, clubs and beginner groups are full of other forty-somethings who had the same worry. It's reassuring and usually good company.
- Set the first goal small. Play one piece. Swim one length of front crawl. Hold one conversation. Then pick the next.
- Keep it in your week. A regular slot does more than enthusiasm. See finding time for a hobby if your diary is the problem.
FAQ
What if you'll never be as good as people who started young?
You might not be, and that's fine. Most people who started young aren't top-level either. The point of a hobby is the doing, and an ordinary level of skill gives a lot of pleasure. Being good is a nice side effect, not the entry fee.
Is forty too late for a career change?
It is a different and bigger question, with money and timing involved, but the same logic applies: you probably have a long working life ahead, and experience from your first career often carries over. Talk to people who've made the move before you commit.
Is there anything that really is too late?
Some elite sporting careers have age limits built in, but those are rare and specialised. For playing, learning, making and exploring, the door stays open much longer than the worry suggests.
How do you deal with feeling embarrassed in a class of younger people?
Remember that they are mostly thinking about themselves. Arrive early, be friendly, laugh at your own first attempts, and you'll often find you're the one people like having in the group.
Written by the Zestasy editors. General information for curious adults, not medical, nutrition or training advice.