How Much Time Are We Really Given?
It’s hard to accurately assess just how many months, days, and years we are given on this planet. Time is a non-renewable resource and we could lose our entire supply of it in the blink of an eye. 50 years could go by in a blink. At a certain point, you come to the realization that there is more time behind you than there is in front of you. I learned this from an old guy in a coffeeshop. When anybody asked him how he was doing he said “it’s the best day of my life.”
It’s possible at the age of 37, I have reached a point where there’s less time in front of me than there is behind me. Maybe you have too. Sure it’s possible we’ll be able to expand lifespans in the next 20 years. But it’s not something I want to leave to chance.
If you knew there’s less time in front of you than there is behind you, how would it change the way you spend your time? I love what Peter Barton said in his book Not Fade Away, when he was facing the end of his life
Small pleasures loom large. And with anything in short supply, their value rises with rarity
Knowing that my time is limited, and the clock seems to tick faster each year, I’d prefer to spend my time creating a vignette of projects and ideas brought to life that I’ll leave behind. One of my friends said if she didn’t tell her story someone else would. That’s true for all of us. We let time fly and someone else tell our stories (a strange observation for someone whose life’s work has revolved around telling other people’s stories).
As the gap between where we start and our finish line decreases we start seeing small delights as large victories
- A perfectly shaped sentence as my friend Ashley Ambirge would say “hits you in the face with a crowbar.” It touches your heart or makes you laugh out loud.
- An old friend calls you talk for hours, laughing an crying about the people you thought you’d become but never did.
- My good friend Matt Monroe takes a picture and I’m still delighted by his work even after 3000 were taken just for me.
The only thing anyone of us can say with certainty about the time we’re given is it’s not renewable and our supply is finite.
We can spend it on people, places and experiences that add to the quality of our lives or subtract from it. Whether you know it consciously or not, you make one of those two choices every single day. When you start to realize just how limited your time is, it changes the choices you make. You can spend your time building a foundation for a future you want. Or you can settle.
But don’t just settle for what’s expected or you’ll regret it later even though it it might ease the pain or the sting of a critic in the moment.
I’m the host of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast, which you can subscribe to on itunes.
