Average life expectancy in Japan is about 84 years; in the USA, it is about 78 years; in India it is about 70 years.
Here is a chart displaying lifeline. I am 44 years old. I have marked myself on the chart. You can take a print of this chart and mark yourself too! Let’s take 70 as average life expectancy.
Realise that the clock is ticking…and ticking irreversibly. I have already spent 44 years of my life. I am short of the average mark by just 26 years!
Mind you, statistically, 70 is the average. It is so, because some people die early. Hence, someone who has survived till 44, statistically, has a decent chance of surviving beyond 70, so that the average comes out to be 70! But, that is besides the point that I am trying to make.
The point that I am trying to make through this pictorial representation is that the clock is ticking. It is ticking for me, as I write this; it is ticking for you as you read this!
44 precious years of my life are gone; there’s nothing I can do about it. No matter what, I cannot get it back. All I have is the remaining 26 years (on an average!).
I will drill down the point a bit further before I move onto what to do about it…
An Alternative Way To Reflect On Age
Let’s assume that we are going to live for 70 years (Or, give any reasonable finite number you deem apt), and count your age not in terms of the number of years you’ve lived, but the number of years you are left with to live. Here’s an illustration:
| Years lived (Actual Age) | Years to live |
|---|---|
| 25 | 45 |
| 44 (my age) | 26 |
| 65 | 5 |
| 72 | -2 |
| 80 | -10 |
At 44, I have on an average 26 years left. Beyond 70, I would be already on borrowed time!
On the face of it, this appears a very pessimistic and gloomy perspective, but in reality, it is just the opposite.
We tend to live life as if we are going to live forever. In most cultures, people avoid thinking and talking about death. Death is talked about only when it happens to some near & dear one. This is an Ostrich like approach. We ignore the inevitable until the D-Day arrives. That’s our oops moment – that’s when we realise that we have an unfinished agenda; there was a lot more to be seen & done. But alas, it’s too late! It is said that if you ask someone on the deathbed about his biggest regrets, he regrets about things he didn’t do or try, rather than things he did or tried!
The point I have tried to make so far is as under:
Life is short. We ignore this fact. We fill our life with all sorts of unnecessary, unwanted, unimportant stuff. We also ignore our health and accelerate our descent towards ill health, ageing and death. And, at some point of time, the reality barges in…makes its presence felt. The writing is on the board. That’s when we realise that we were chasing wrong things in life and there is a lot of unfinished agenda. We wish we could borrow time & health. But, it’s too late. We were moving decisively and irreversibly towards a dead end. The clock was always ticking…we just ignored it!
This picture appears gloomy and depressing. Indeed it is…if you choose to ignore the clock. On the other hand, if you accept the reality and do not ignore it, it induces a certain urgency.
This perspective of counting age as years left to live and acknowledging the clock, should induce an urgency to:
- live life
- Stop procrastinating fun
- Prioritise actions & relationships
- Stop chasing money & materialistic possessions endlessly
- Have a learner’s attitude
- Stay healthy
- Live deliberately & responsibly
Life is short, if you squander it on frivolous matter. It is long enough, if you live intentionally and in the moment.
“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”
W.M. Lewis
Do not confine your life, for years & years, in a drab routine. Set your priorities right. Detox yourself for a few days, weeks, months. Analyse your priorities. Chances are that you are wasting maximum time on low priority items. Reset them and live by them. What one wants out of one’s life is case specific. However, typically, the top priorities will include – innate passions, a set of very few loved ones, and a set of very few sources of earning which should ideally emerge out of innate passions.
“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”
Leo Tolstoy
Amongst your priorities, your numero uno priority has to be your health. Good health will help you be at the far end of the age distribution curve, i.e., you”ll live longer. Not only that, the quality of life will be much better for most of your life. Imagine, being down with fever, or backache for half of your 14 nights – 15 days holiday! That’s what you do, when you live unhealthily and invite lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, knee and back problems etc. With such diseases, you end up dragging yourself for the last 3rd of your life. Being healthy, helps you live your life to the fullest. Being healthy is a simple Three Pillared Approach that we all can easily follow and enable a fulfilling life.
I conclude with some practical suggestions
- Do not squander your time on frivolous matter
- You just don’t have time for revenge or grudge or envy
- Do not confine your life to one monotonous drab routine
- Health is your numero uno priority
- After health, your next priorities are a few loved ones and your innate passions; create a life you don’t need a vacation from
- Celebrate every small & big success & happy event
- Create memories
- Do not procrastinate joy, love, fun
- Stop trying to please people you don’t care about; Stop living someone else’s life
- Replace fear with wonder & curiosity
- Steer through life with a compass, not a map
- Be intentional in every aspect of your life.
- Make happiness your default state; Keep remorse & grief for brief
Do all of this…and do this as of yesterday…because remember…
The Clock is ticking…& it doesn’t tick backwards!