Here's the thing with birthdays, when you're a little kid, you get excited about having birthdays, as you think of cakes, presents and the like. I remember my ninth birthday, and I said to my parents, "It doesn't feel any different being nine than it does being eight." Then, you start to think, "Okay, when I'm 13, I become a teenager, then, at 16, I can get a learner's permit. Then, at 17, I can go for my licence. Then, at 18 (21, in the USA) I can drink alcohol, I can vote in an election."

Then, as you get older, you start to think, "Oh, gee, I'm 30 and I haven't done this. Oh, gee, I'm 40, I haven't done that."

I have found that the secret to happiness (there's a difference between happiness and what makes you happy) is not, as this ridiculous doctor says, having a family, but not comparing yourself to other people.

So, let's say you go to the 30th Anniversary School Reunion, it doesn't matter if your archrival from school has three kids who regales everyone with real or imagined tales of how their eldest is an Olympic Gold Medalist in three strokes of swimming, another is at university and another is at high school. Okay, it's better than saying two are in prison and another is on remand awaiting sentence. It doesn't matter if a male archrival is CEO of a major corporation on a seven figure salary with a Porsche and a wife who could be a model anywhere. What matters is that YOU are happy where YOU are in life.

Okay, for some people, turning 50 can see a man walk out on his family, abandon his short back and sides haircut for a ponytail or plait and a beard, a few tattoos and sell his Toyota Aurion and buy a Harley Davidson. For some women, growing older can mean having the confidence to leave an unhappy marriage. For some women, it can also mean they have the body confidence that they didn't have at 15, and at 50, they buy their first bikini.

Your birthday should be a time to check in on yourself. Yes, life is for the living, and nobody should do anything haphazardly, but if you keep thinking, "Next year," and then the following year, "Next year," next year might not be assured. So, if you want to go on a trip around Australia, maybe think, "Okay, how much long service leave do I have saved up?" "Twelve weeks." Okay, so maybe rather than taking all twelve weeks, I might take my four weeks annual leave and two weeks of my long service leave and think, "I'll go south, this year." Then, the following year, take another two weeks, of it and go north."

If you want to travel oversea, maybe you can't go around the world in one trip, but you can apply the same logic and think, "Okay, I've always wanted to see the Grand Canyon. So, this year, I'll do it." Then, next year, "I've always wanted to see the Tower of London and the temples in Kyoto. So, I'll fly to London, spend a few weeks there, then fly Japan Airlines, London to Osaka, and from Osaka, travel to Kyoto, and spend some time there. Then take the bullet train to Tokyo and fly home."

Use your birthday as a check-in time.