Living on Borrowed Time: Investing Our Moments Wisely

Our life on this planet is short.

So short that even if you’re lucky enough to live till 90 yrs, all of the days in your life can be summarised in less than a page.. you need just ~32,800 cells in the spreadsheet for each day.. and if you minus first 15-18 years and last 5-10 years of life.. it shrinks down to roughly 20,000.

Seemingly, this is plenty of days. However, when you break down the numbers further, the shortness of life feels abysmal.

I know there is nothing new in this..and you know-it-all.. but stay with me for a minute and let's give it a visual thought..

For me, it all triggered over a lunch conversation with my colleagues and since then this thought is living rent free igniting loops of chatter 😃 

Ok.. since you are with me till here.

Let's start from the parents:

Let’s say you live in a different city than your parents and u see them three times a year during Holi, Diwali and such festivals.. Now, If you’re 30 years old, and your parents are around 60, that’s roughly around 90 more visits. That's it..

And if we factor our life aspirations, moving to bigger cities for jobs, career, marriage etc and visually plot our proximity with parents, close friends, partner, colleagues and time spent alone on a timeline, it’s a serious thought..

Shifting your mindset is an easy way to determine what you should spend your time on. Do the numbers and it hopefully forces you to reflect back on how should we spend the time we are left with..

Let’s say your best friend is in town on business. You’d like to meet them, but you’re swamped with work and running behind schedules. Now, let's now break it down on numbers and let’s say you see them 5 times a year, and you’re both in your 30s..

Meeting 150 times. That’s not a large number. And, in the context of life, you’re already reaching the tail end of these meetings.

Estimate your remaining meetings: Multiply the frequency (5 times/year) by the remaining years (let's say 40 years until retirement). 5 times/year * 40 years = 200 meetings.

Now adjust for age: You've already had some meetings. Let's assume you've been friends for 10 years, so you've already met 5 times/year * 10 years = 50 times.

Calculate total remaining meetings: Subtract the past meetings from the estimated total: 200 meetings - 50 meetings = 150 meetings.

How about weekend trips? Sunrises? Meeting old friends over some tapri?

Let's say you take 2 weekend trips per year. In your 20s, that's 40 trips. Sounds exciting! But by your 60s, it's only 80 trips.

So Instead of telling yourself, “We’ll try again next time,” try this, This is one of the last 150 times I’ll get to see them. This is one of the last 80 weekend trips I have in this life..

When our calendars are flooded 5 times a week and we are “by design” trading our time with this level of insanity largely for our survival, such reminders are much needed.

So the question is, how should we approach our time..do we have a blueprint to reflect back and use this as a gentle reminder?

have you heard of this Philosophy - “Memento mori“?

Give it a read, it’s an interesting perspective to life..

Or maybe concepts and frameworks like Hedgehog and Ikigai can help you bring towards the centre and align with the “purpose of life“..

While further exploring more on this topic, I came across few wonderful thinkers like Paul Graham , Jim Collins..they gave a serious thought and helped with some frameworks/mental models to reflect on this question.

Ok, let's do one more thought experiment.. I am asking because this framework made maximum impact on me..

Imagine you wake up tomorrow morning and as you usually check your phone.. you got this bank message with 100Cr. in your bank account. But.. but..there is this catch,.

You’ve only 5 years to live.

If this happens, how would your life change in terms of priorities? what would you stop doing?

Visualise the scenario in detail. Then, create a stop-doing list and let's call it "purge the bullshit"..

Write out a list using the information you collected in the last suggestion.

Name the abstract actions and behaviours you’d stop doing.

As Collins says, “The real task is to always be clear about what to stop doing.”

My "purge the bullshit" list is as follows: 

• Placing a large gap between thought and action

• Feeling the urge to "accept" every new request

If you follow the same exercise, what’s left in your day to day routine should be bring you meaning and satisfaction.

Remember to flag and choose between instant vs delayed gratifications in life..

Purge what isn’t contributing to your life. It’s short, after all.