Turning 60 is no joke.

This is a joke: “Life is like a bar of chocolate. It doesn’t last long if you’re fat”– Joe Lycett

And while turning 20, 30, 40 or 50 is no box of coffee creams either, the deal with turning 60 is that people feel compelled to exhort you to “slow down,” “take it easy” and “put your feet up.” They might even say “you’re at an age where you need to be careful – it’s probably best if you don’t make long-term plans.”

Well hold on just a doggone minute, hand me down my walking cane so I can use it to knock the stuffing out of that type of attitude and send it rolling and tumbling down the mountain into the dark abyss of an ocean tomb.

It has been said so many times already in the pages of these blogs but it can stand being said again: age is just a number that has no bearing on our ability to do whatever it may be that we want to do.

60 is not a stopping point, or a turning point or a jumping off point. It’s just another point. 60 is not about being settled and accepting. 60 is not about standing still and watching life. Turning 60 is about screaming at life “get a shake-on and try to keep up!”

There is a whole big world’s worth of things available to us, so here’s my highly personal ‘starter’ list of the 60 things to (still) do at 60:

1. play music loudly
2. discover the Scandinavian Stoner Rock scene
3. form a band, even if you can’t play or sing (think about Bez from the Happy Mondays and be inspired)
4. run 10k in under 50 mins
5. run a marathon in under 4 hours
6. climb Ben Nevis in the snow (then carry on and climb all 282 Munros)
7. learn 5 new ways to cook authentic Italian Sugo di Pomodoro
8. start a business
9. sell a business (then start a new business)
10. learn the phonetic alphabet
11. facetime your children
12. take your entire wardrobe to charity and start over
13. shave your initials into your head
14. fall in love
15. dream
16. hire or buy a camper-van and drive the North Coast 500 – check out Rockin Vans which is one of the largest motorhome and camper hire companies in the United Kingdom. Go to: Rockin Vans
17. be an extra on a film/TV show
18. do a 10 min stand-up set at an open-mic night
19. eat a hard cheese other than cheddar – give Grana-Padano a go
20. wear a dress
21. stop eating meat
22. read (finish reading) Moby Dick, Ulysses, Don Quixote
23. take risks
24. join a choir
25. go to church
26. stop going to church
27. buy a house abroad
28. change your name
29. study the lives of the early roman emperors – Augustus through to Nero
30. make a dining chair from maplewood
31. learn to meditate
32. sell something on eBay
33. go whale watching in Kaikoura, New Zealand or the Isle of Mull, Scotland
34. go back to University
35. get a motorbike licence
36. take up yoga
37. eat butternut squash 3 ways
38. go into local politics
39. make a new friend
40. buy a dye-tie T-shirt kit
41. get up one hour earlier every morning
42. start a blog
43. watch every Gregory Peck movie
44. have a picnic
45. spend a day fundraising
46. meet your idol (keep stalking to a minimum)
47. make your own bread
48. be a ‘life’ model in an art class
49. watch a TED talk
50. write a letter
51. apply for a new job
52. visit a museum
53. learn how to build a stone dyke
54. live your life forwards, not backwards
55. perfect a magic trick
56. write a novel
57. change your hair colour
58. do something, not nothing
59. go to a performance of every Shakespeare play
60. be good to yourself

+ 61. keep on keeping on

Please tell us what would make your list of things to do when sixty! We’d love to hear and share.