‎ What if we stopped treating 50 as a finish line and started treating it as a starting point? This is the idea behind the annual 50 Over 50—and today, it’s more urgent than ever before. By Mika Brzezinski, ContributorSix years ago, when we launched the first Forbes and Know Your Value 50 Over 50 list, I had a very simple idea: What if we stopped treating 50 as a finish line and started treating it as a starting point?Today, as we unveil our sixth annual list, that idea feels bigger — and more urgent — than ever.This year, as always, we are celebrating 200 extraordinary women across four categories: Impact, Investment, Lifestyle and Innovation. They are entrepreneurs and executives, artists and journalists, leaders in politics, philanthropy, entertainment, business and beyond. And they are proving something I have believed for a long time: Age is not an impediment to doing the most meaningful, ambitious and impactful work of your career. In many cases, it is an advantage.I know this personally. This year, I turned 59. And I have to admit: When I was younger, the idea of turning 60 scared me. Sixty sounded old. It sounded like a finish line, a number that meant certain doors would begin to close – especially if you’re a woman who works in media.Now, with 60 around the corner, I feel almost the opposite. I feel like I’m just getting started! I still have so much I want to do, so much I want to learn, and so many stories I want to tell.Jamel Toppin for ForbesI’m thrilled to wake up every morning, deliver the news, sit across from fascinating people, ask questions and debate the very real impact of what’s happening in the world. I have never felt more curious or more energized by the work. If anything, I have more to offer now because I have spent decades learning how to do it. That’s the gift of experience — and it is exactly what the women on this list remind me of.Not only does 60 feel like a beginning, the times we live in call for it to be. While through this list we are highlighting 200 remarkable women, we also have to acknowledge a difficult reality: In many ways, the situation for women in the United States and around the world is moving backward. Access to life-saving reproductive health care remains under threat. The pay gap persists. Flexibility at work — something so many women fought hard to achieve — is moving in the wrong direction. And a brutal job market is making it harder for women, particularly those trying to build careers while raising families, to find opportunity and financial security.This moment calls for us, especially those who have weathered the storm, paved the long runway, and have the experience in fortitude to fight for the next generation. Just look at some of the names on this year’s list:At 54, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is breaking new ground as the first female military veteran to serve as a state governor. Her path — from Naval Academy graduate and Navy helicopter pilot to federal prosecutor to governor — is a remarkable story of reinvention and service.At 64, investigative journalist at the Miami Herald, Julie K. Brown, is being recognized for work that changed the world’s understanding of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and gave victims a voice. She helped expose Epstein’s wrongdoings in a series of stories in 2017 and 2018 that led to his arrest (and the arrest of his associate Ghislaine Maxwell). Her reporting is a powerful reminder of what happens when an experienced journalist refuses to look away.Dale Anglin, 62, is tackling another crisis: the collapse of local news. As inaugural director of Press Forward, she is working to make sure communities across America have access to reliable information about the places they call home. That is not simply a journalism mission. It is a democracy mission.And then there is Karen S. Carter, 55, who became the first woman to lead Dow as CEO this year — after joining the company as an intern in 1994. Think about that career arc!! She didn’t arrive at the top overnight. She built a lifetime of experience that ultimately prepared her to break a barrier that had stood for more than a century.“Age is not an impediment to doing the most meaningful, ambitious and impactful work of your career. In many cases, it is an advantage.“