I’m 50. Here Are 7 Things a Veteran Should Know By 40

We get wiser with each decade, so learn from the advice we might give to ourselves

Jason Piccolo,

AARP Veteran Report

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Published August 24, 2023

jason piccolo sits at a desk in front of a gray wall with an american flag.

Veteran podcaster Jason Piccolo offers tips he thinks veterans should know by age 40.

Noah Willman

I just hit the half-century milestone: 50 years old! If only I could give my younger self some advice, I would impart these seven things.

closeup of a rusty dog tag with the text thank you veterans engraved in it, next to a flag of the United States

You can subscribe here to AARP Veteran Report, a free e-newsletter published twice a month. If you have feedback or a story idea then please contact us here.

1. Build a personal résumé. For the better part of your adult life, you have put significant effort into building your professional résumé. You have served your nation, you have trained and you may have deployed overseas, in combat even. All that experience became incredible bullet points for your professional résumé. Now that your professional résumé is created, it is time to work on your “personal” résumé bullets, from exploring a new hobby to setting new goals outside work and focusing on your professional development.

2. Make fitness a priority. Those early mornings sometimes came way too early. Physical fitness at zero dark thirty did not seem too appealing at the time. Yet those military training sessions were a necessity and energized you. Now that you have moved on from service, fitness should still be a priority. In fact, it needs to be a priority. Your body needs physical fitness as you age to keep your heart healthy, lower stress and manage your weight.

3. Keep a schedule. In uniform, everything ran like clockwork. Your leader, or designate, would schedule things, and you showed up at the time and place. Now that you are out, it is time to schedule yourself. Whether it is as simple as scheduling a morning gym session, time reading or dealing with those chores, it will keep you on track.

4. Learn to slow down. The military profession had you going a million miles a minute: be here, stay there, do this, do that — and do all this fast! Your faster-is-better attitude may have followed you into the civilian profession and into your personal life. At this juncture, take a step back and slow down. You should plan your tasks to keep from burning out. Slow down. There is time.

5. Network. During your service, if there was a school you wanted to attend or an assignment you wanted, you reached out to someone in your network who may have known more about it. This same concept works in the civilian world, except now it is more about building a relationship than asking for immediate assistance. Many people within and outside the veteran community want to help you reach your goals. Just remember that networking is relationship building.

6. Keep learning. Your service gave you the opportunity to attend training and perhaps some educational courses along the way. After you left, you may have used education benefits you earned for college, vocational or technical training. But learning goes beyond university and trade school; continuous learning can be developing a new skill, diving into history books and beyond. The goal is to keep your mind as active as your body.

7. Ask for help. You were on a team while in uniform, and your team members relied on one another to complete the missions you were tasked with. Therefore, help was often given without you asking for it. Now you may feel as if you don’t have that same camaraderie and brotherhood/sisterhood and that almost instant help when you need it. But that same help is out there. You have to be your own advocate, though, and seek support when needed. It’s OK to ask for help. Nobody will look down on you.

Bottom line: Don’t be afraid to take tips from those of us who have been there.

You can subscribe here to AARP Veteran Report, a free e-newsletter published twice a month. If you have feedback or a story idea then please contact us here.

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Jason Piccolo is a former infantry captain in the U.S. Army who served in Iraq. He recently retired after more than 22 years as a federal agent. He is an avid competition shooter and certified instructor and has appeared more than 60 times as an expert on Court TV. For the past four years, he has been the host of The Protectors podcast.

I’m 50. Here Are 7 Things a Veteran Should Know By 40

We get wiser with each decade, so learn from the advice we might give to ourselves

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