Never Too Late To Learn

A random run-in at a gas station turns into a surprisingly honest gut check: why do some comments hit so hard, and what do we do with that feeling once it shows up? We take that little sting and flip it into motivation, then zoom out to the bigger question a lot of us face in midlife, especially after 40: what dream did you put on a shelf because life got loud?

We talk about getting back into workouts while accepting that recovery looks different now, then we go deep on the decision to pick up a lifelong goal: learning to play acoustic guitar, with a soft spot for the Spanish guitar sound that sparked the obsession in the first place. From there, we connect the dots to learning Spanish, not as a “perfectly fluent” fantasy, but as a practical skill for travel, confidence, and real conversations.

Along the way, we get real about adult learning and why it can feel like your brain is full: responsibilities, stress, and limited time. The takeaway is simple and powerful: choose a realistic goal, practice it consistently, and refuse to label yourself “too old” to start. If you’ve been thinking about a new hobby after 40, learning a language, learning an instrument, writing a book, or chasing a fitness challenge, this is your nudge.

Subscribe for more real-life motivation, share this with a friend who’s been hesitating, and leave a review if it helps you take one small step this week. What skill are you ready to start, even as a beginner?

Family, friends, frenemies, pull up. This is your invitation to laugh, reflect, and speak your truth. No edits. No filters. Just grown-folk conversation. New episodes every week. Your comments shape the show. #unscriptedafter40 

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Transcript

Listener Topics And Quick Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:13

First of all, thank you for all your comments and suggestions for topics this week. I'll make sure I'm gonna rewrite them, get through the gauntlet, and make sure that I start pushing out these topic suggestions that all y'all have been asking for so that upcoming episodes of you can hear your topic. Make sure you comment and say, hey, I suggest that topic for you, and that's why you did it. So welcome to another Unstrifted After 40, the podcast. Now, before I get started with my story, we we're gonna wrap this story within something else. So I've been working out, working out was going great. My body still hurt. I'm old, so I gotta let that go and stop complaining about that. But in the effort of trying to work out more and do different things, I started thinking about my

A Gas Station Rivalry Moment

SPEAKER_00 1:05

long life dream of playing a guitar. But before I get started with that, this is how the story all started out. Okay, so I was at the gas station, and I realized that I am from the great state of South Carolina. So I didn't realize it, but I know I'm from the great state of South Carolina. So there are two football teams in the great state of South Carolina that, you know, most people talk about, even though I'm a Bulldog fan as well, you know, because I'm from our OBC, baby. So go Bulldogs. Um, we got the Game Cox and we got Clemson, you know, those are two Division I schools, okay? And I went to Bulldogs and I went to Gamecox. So that's why my heart is in both of those schools. So anyway, I walked past this person at the gas station this week, and I saw that he had a Clemson sign on the front of his car. So first of all, I said, hey, you know what? Nice truck because he had a Chevy, Chevy's rule. And then second, I was saying, you know, it's another team that is better in South Carolina. He smiled. Now, it wasn't the fact that he had the climps inside the front of his car that pissed me off about the situation, okay? Yeah, because he did piss me off. I mean, not to the point where, you know, I'm gonna go argue with the guy, but he he pissed me out because you're right. That's pretty much what it was. Pissed me out because you're right. Um, he said, and and I quote, my team is the only team that got three championships. Oh, did I think of call that? He said there's only one team in South Carolina that got three championships. Hey, I thought about it. He he he's right. Yeah, we don't got no championships. Huh. Go game cocks. He hurt my feelings. That's why I was pissed.

Turning A Sting Into Motivation

SPEAKER_00 3:05

He hurt my feelings. Okay, but that goes in like I said in my conversation, right? As I go back and think about it, right? When you're over 40, there's a lot of things in life you want to see or achieve as we go forward. Okay, my throat, my throat. Okay. There's a lot of things you want to achieve and do. But as you get older, a lot of things get harder to do just because of, you know, time. Um, you got other life obligations going on. But I'm here to encourage y'all to, you know, as I go on this journey of working out, also I'm gonna pick up a new hobby and I encourage y'all all to do it while y'all over 40, especially y'all people that's over 40. And if you're not over 40 and you want to pick up something, pick up something like so. I've been trying to learn Spanish for the last 25 years. Um I got a couple of Spanish words, you know. I know Cuanta Cuesta, I know Porque, que paso amigo, you know. I uh I my Spanish is I can understand more than I can speak. I realized since I could barely speak English, learning how to speak another language might be a difficulty. But I'm rambling, okay. After I had that encounter with the guy at the gas station, and he hurt my feelings, I that brought me to this thing that, you know what, he's right, I'm gonna let it go. Let me think about something else. Then that got me thinking about me and my lifelong journey of learning how to play the guitar, the acoustic guitar, and especially in before precise, the Spanish gift tar. Because like I said, I was trying to learn Spanish anyway. And then I don't know if y'all ever seen the movie Desperado, okay? So if you've seen the movie Desperado with Antonio Banderas, y'all kind of understand where I'm coming from here. In the beginning of that movie, he was playing that gift tar solo and he was going in with a string gift tar and his little Machiali, Martiali band. I know I'm saying it wrong, but y'all know what I'm talking about. And the song he played in the beginning of that movie and all throughout that movie, it got me inspired to be a gift tar player. Now, I bought my first gift tar back in 2005. Yeah, yeah, 2005. And I still have it. Um, but I still another player. So, so that's that's that's another problem. So I picked the heart back up again. I said, you know what? I had this gift car for a long while, I'm gonna buy another one. So about two months ago, I bought me another gift

The Guitar Dream And Desperado

SPEAKER_00 5:55

jar. And this gift gu got some intricate designs on it, and it's beautiful, okay? And it plays beautiful. The downfall is I still don't know how to play it, okay? And I'm working on it. I'm I'm trying to work on it. But the whole rap of why we start in this is saying, hey, as you get older, there's a lot of things that we want to do that we realize that it's gonna take a little more effort. And that's the effect that I'm going through right now. I have to take some effort within some of my new adventure hobbies and make sure that I actually get better at it. And I think what it is now that I realize that as we grow up in age and we have all these new responsibilities that we have to take care of because, you know, life, like, like life is just life, okay? Like whether you got kids, you're doing a second job or stuff like that. And especially once you're over 40, picking up new things to do that you want to do later in life is kind of hard. Now, my dream of being an NFL running back has passed. Um that that's not gonna happen. Um, mainly because I want to get hit. I don't know if y'all see those hits on TV these days, especially when they put the sound on it. Oh God, it sounds horrible. It sounds like they're getting hit by a truck. And then it's so big. I'm only maybe 180 wet. About five, nine. I I'm still a little fast, but I'm not as fast as I was when I was in my 20s, even my early 30s. So I don't know if I can get away from them. But those things. So as I talk about the different things that we're gonna, do not get disencouraged within your age frame or your time frame. Because it's not really an age thing. I know once we get over 25 and life really starts happening, because for most people, um, maybe about 23, life starts really fast then. And you start, because that's when most people get out of college, or those, if you're one of those people that joined the military right after you turn 18, you know, life started right then. Um, or one of the other professions.

Learning Gets Harder After 40

SPEAKER_00 8:15

But going back to my original story, as I now are working on learning how to play the guitar, I realize that my brain is not what it used to be. It's still sharp. It's not depleting, but it's not tolerable to the new information that's coming in. It's like my capacity, my brain is full. So I'm gonna see if I can dump some data, you know, like my kids' birthday, you know, um, that might be one. I can start with that. That's taking a lot of memory. You know, old phone numbers that I don't need to remember, you know, so that can get some that capacity, and so I can start learning how to play the guitar. And even learning Spanish. Because I picked the guitar back up, I picked back up learning Spanish again. Like I said, I understand what Spanish speakers are saying, but the speaking of the language is where my problem is at. So that's what I need to work on. So I downloaded um the Babel album, and it is, I guess it's free for life. That's the only reason I got because it's free for life. They say the the commercial got me. It's say learn Spanish this year, and then learn French the next year, and then learn Italian the next year. So in three years, I should know three different languages. In theory. Um, yeah, I don't know if that's gonna be set with my life go, but we're gonna keep it going. So hopefully, that's the thing. And then while I'm learning Spanish, I'm gonna practice my gift here at night so I can do that. Because I realize that just because I'm old for it, don't mean I can't keep learning new things. So as this year, I dunno taught myself into a tough mother and I'm still running marathons like an idiot. Um, we're gonna work on learning new things after 40 that we want to do back in our 20s. And and I could be anything. So, like I say, my dream of NFL running back, that that dream is gone. I'm gonna get more realistic, okay? I probably can still do it, but it's it's gonna be painful. But for those of y'all that's out there that think about doing or trying new things at the age of 40, come join me. I'm with you, no matter what it is. Because whether you want to go back to school, which is something that people want to do, you know, whether you're trying to like myself learn a new instrument, because learning a new instrument is is a thing. And like I said, I'm gonna learn how to play the Spanish gift to. I only want to learn one song. I'm not even asking to be that big, just one song. And then with learning Spanish, it's because I want to travel more to Hispanic-speaking countries. Yeah, that thing I'm saying right. Hispanic-speaking, speaking Spanish countries, countries that speak Spanish. Yes. Because when I went to Barcelona about a couple years back, great time there. Understand what people say, but they didn't understand crap I was saying. Because I put I kept pronouncing all the words wrong. So I probably need to just, you know, work on my pronunciation. And that's what the hopefully the babble out with the speaking to it can help me out. And I might need to, you know, back up a little bit and learn how to speak English properly first. That that that probably helped other learn how to speak my own

Realistic Goals That Still Stretch You

SPEAKER_00 11:45

language first, you know. English is supposed to be my primary language these days, and um, yeah. You heard me y'all listening this podcast. Y'all, y'all hear how I talk. Country as fuck. Um, so I'm gonna work on that. Um, and then for some of y'all, I got a friend um that is writing a book. So writing a book is a very difficult task, especially when you get old in age and you got all these memories and thoughts that you want to put on paper, it's a lot. So writing a book is a difficult task, but you can do it, I believe in you. So, this episode, as you think about it, the key thing that you take about, you heard all the strambling that I've been doing, and I've been going this way, that way, up and down. If you want to do something and that you think that you've been waiting so long and that it's too late to do it, and it's a realistic dream. Like I say, realistic dream, right? Like I say, like we talked earlier, I want to be an NFL running back. It's yeah, it's more like a 10%, I might do it, 9%, hell no. Um so, but like I say, realistic dream. Learn to play a new instrument, learn a new language. If you don't know how to swim, you know, swim. If you um try and run your first marathon, you can do that. Um, if you want to paint, painting is great. Uh I mean, I see people doing. They look so relaxed when you do it. Um, you want to learn how to be a better photographer or something like that, you know, with your little iPhone taking picture thing, this is your time, okay? There's never a time in your life it's too late to learn something new. That is the key to this whole episode. If I can put up into a nutshell, it's never too late to learn how to do something new at any age. But for you 40-olds and over 40 that are comfortable with yourself and don't want to put a new challenge and say, hey, you know what? My time has gone. If it's a realistic goal that you know that you can achieve, hey, come join me. Like I say, I already started going back to the gym. I'm I'm doing this tough mother. I don't know why. I I could I need to quit that. That's one of the goals I just need to quit. And then I'm working out more. So we all can do it. I'm counting on you to come join me. My after 40 club. We're gonna do

After 40 Club And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 14:15

it great and we're gonna keep it doing. So as I pick up Spanish and the gift tar and continue to learn it, as we grow with this podcast, and I grow with you and you grow with me, we're gonna get better, okay? So thank you as always for listening and rocking with me, okay? I appreciate all the comments and all the likes and stuff that y'all give me. And I keep it up, y'all. I love it, I love it, I love it. Comments, shares, and topic suggestions are always welcome and encouraged. Like I said, I got a lot of topic suggestions from you that I'm gonna do the research to make sure that I'm talking, you know, at least somewhat educated on the topic, and then we're gonna get through it together. So, until next time, keep rocking with it, keep doing what you're doing, and keep trying new things, even if they're difficult to do.