36525 days to live

“Life is life. 75% of what we do is ordinary maintenance work. So work your butt off to make sure the remaining 25% really sparkles!”

• Tom Peters

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I really believe in hard work, in creating something that we can be proud of.

The purpose of doing this is not to show off,

it is to stretch ourselves out of our personal comfort zone,

to keep growing and to stay young in spirit.

So go ahead…

Work your butt off,

Have a lot of fun doing it!

“Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.”
Henry Miller

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When I can drive a car…

When I get my degree…

When I find Mister Right or Miss Perfect…

When I have kids…

When I have a better job or salary…

When the kids leave home…

When I retire…

When they fire my boss…

Signed by:  Dr.Procrastinatrix

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When… fill your own excuse here ______________________

When… when…when will you stop making excusessss?

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot”

Michael Altshuler

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A lot of people talk about time management. There is no such thing as time management. We cannot manage time. We can only manage ourselves.Time manages itself very well without us.

We should talk about life management in relation with the time that is given to each one of us. This starts with checking on our priorities.

Did you clarify your priorities recently?

No!

Thank you very much, we prefer to learn the hard way!

It must hurt!

Do you feel the pain?

Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual!

It’s probabably a good thing…

Why?

Do you know a lot of people who would have the patience to read it?

Personally…I don’t know too many.

It seems to me that most of us prefer to make the mistakes ourselves and learn the hard way.

(Perhaps we learn and understand faster when we feel the pain)

I know, I know… it doesn’t seem to be rational but it’s how it really is.

At least it is very pragmatic and it forces realism.

 Jean-Jacques Rousseau the genevois philosopher used to answer that he went to the “University of Hard Knocks” when people asked him about his education .

I guess he’s not the only one.

In your case, does it really have to hurt?

Do you like how it feels? 

The older I’m becoming,

The more I try to avoid the pain by observing and learning WHAT NOT TO DO.

“If my doctor told me I only had six minutes to  live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”

Isaac Asimov, Life, 1984

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Here is someone who understood the value of time…

 “Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 9,000 letters and postcards.^[2] His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System.”

Source , Wikipedia , November 29, 2010.

 And he was on this planet for approximately  only 26 400 days… WOW!

Time and health are two precious commodities that we rarely appreciate until they have been lost.

As with health, time is the raw material of life.

We can use it wisely, waste it or even destroy it.

To accomplish all we that we want to do, we would need many lifetimes.

Should we live forever, there would be no need to set goals or set priorities.

Why should we?

We could waste a lot of time and still manage to accomplish a few things.

The reality is that we’re given only this one life on earth to do our best.

Each one of us now living has exactly 168 hours per week.

Technology hasn’t created any new minutes, yet, and even the very wealthy people can’t buy more hours.

Many rich people whispered these final words on their deathbed: “I would give away all my possessions for a moment of time!”

We are preoccupied about things we want to do, but can’t, instead of doing the things we can do, but don’t.

How often have you said to yourself, “Where did the day go?

I accomplished nothing,” or “I can’t even remember what I did yesterday.”

That time is gone, and we never get it back.

How do you plan to manage your time, your energy, your priorities to get the most of these 168 hours this week?

Or if you prefer, the next 24 hours…

LOVE asked FRIENDSHIP:   ” Why do you exist when I already exist?

FRIENDSHIP smiled and said:   “To put a smile where you leave tears”

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Relationships are not like Twitter or Facebook, you can’t log in and log out whenever you want.

This week end is a good time to log out (from technology) and spend time with your loved ones.

Love is spelled T.I.M.E.

and

Time is spelled G.E.N.E.R.O.S.I.T.Y  ( sometimes self-sacrifice)

“It is not that we have a short life to live but we waste a lot of it”

Seneca

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Sometimes we waste our time because we don’t have much control over what is happening to us. In this case, there’s not much we can do about it.

At other times we waste our time because we lack a definite purpose in our lives.
This we can do something about. We must take the time to ask ourselves the important questions, the ones that concern only us.

It may look like a waste of time at first, but in the long run, it will save us time.

Benjamin Franklin used to ask himself these important questions every night before he went to sleep.

What did I do wrong today?
What did I do right ?
What can I improve tomorrow?

Apparently, he did this for most of his life.

If you want to learn more about this, I recommend that you read his autobiography. It will make you realize that even if he lived more than 250 years ago, he was facing similar challenges like the ones we have to deal with today.

“ Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. ”

Mark Twain (1835–1910)
American humorist and writer

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Whenever someone is trying to discourage you by saying you are crazy, do not believe them!

For when they say you are crazy, there is a real possibility that you are on something reaaaalllly good.

Did you know that some critics said that Wayne Gretzky was too small and too slow to make it in the NHL. But, by the end of his 24 year career as a player, “The Great One” had amassed 60 records, including the record of the most goals : 894 in 1 487 games.

Oh by the way, does anyone remember the names of the critics?

Drama coaches told Lucille Ball she had “no talent for acting”.

But she refused to give up a dream and became one of America’s beloved stars of her generation.

Who were those drama coaches again?

Does anyone remember their names?

Trust your instincts and follow your heart!

Most people I know prefer to avoid the subject of their own mortality.

I know , it’s not the most exciting subject, but I think it’s a mistake not to look at death straight in the face for what it really is.

Why?

Because if we would dare to look at death , most of us would change a lot of things that we are currently procrastinating about.

We have seen this happen many times: when someone gets diagnosed with an incurable disease, when they learn how much time they have left to live , they change a lot of things in their life.

Some of the people who went through this extreme experience said that it was the most intense, fulfilling genuine experience they ever had.

My question to you is: Why wait until you have no time left before making significant changes in your life?

“In order to be truly happy you must stand for something larger than yourself”

“Doing good actually makes you better. If you choose to offer your skills and talent in service, it turns everything you do from a job into a gift”

Oprah Winfrey

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• Thomas Edison said that he never worked a day in his life, he said it was all fun even if he was spending 18 hours a day at his job…

There are ways of feeling like you never have to work a day in your life. One way to accomplish this is to immerse yourself in something that you are truly passionate about. Another way is to do something good for others who don’t have as much as you.

A good book that explains this concept is Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (P.S.) (Paperback) from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

But what if I can’t do this?

Well, just keep looking at that clock until 5h00 PM.

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it”

Anonymous

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Life goes quickly and the clock is ticking.

Time is life’s most precious asset.

A human life has a potential of approximately 36525 days to live. (100 years)

Did you ever stop your daily activities to think about that?

Every night when I go to bed, when I fall asleep , I have one less  day to live.

Yes I know, It sounds obvious, but when was the last time  you really considered that? Were you ever aware of this?

This is what it looks like.

36525,36524,36523,36522 if I am a newborn.

27395,27394,27393,27393 if I am 25 years old

18263,18262,18261,18260 if I am 50 years old

9131,9130,9129,9128 if I am 75 years old

1826,1825,1824,1823 if I am 95 years old

365,364,363,362 if I am 99 years old

This scenario is based on a perfect life potential, in a perfect world.

Now, in reality, my life expectancy will be influenced by which part of the world I am born in. It also depends on whether I am born a male or a female.

Life expectancy may vary between 35 and 85 years old depending on which country I am born in.

For example if the life expectancy in my country of origin is 35 years old , I should expect to live 12780 days as a potential.

If the life expectancy in my country is 85 years old , I should expect to live approximatively 31046 days.

Next comes the hereditary factors on which I have very little control over, like an unexpected and unforgiving cancer and other uncontrollable circumstances such as car accidents, sport accidents, plane crashes …….I’ll let you meditate on this matter until next time.

How long do you expect to live?

When will you really start living?

“Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

 Lao Tzu

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It is often difficult for us to count our blessings, it is much easier to complain and focus on what we lack and what we need.

However, true happiness will be experienced when we are grateful with what we have and what happens to us.

Here is an inspiring life story that represents a real life experience in spite of …

A weird thing I do is scribble in books. Do you know how many people I have offended by writing all kinds of notes in books?

Many times, people looked at what I was doing to my books with complete disbelief.

I wouldn’t write in other people’s book, of course, I write notes only in mine. I write comments with pencils and markers, jot down definitions, translations and I wouldn’t hesitate to rip a couple of pages from the book if there was no copier around me. The books can be quite messy after I’m done with them. I have a lot of respect for the message of the book and a complete disrespect for material support itself.

Why do I write my ideas in books? These are some of my reasons… Books are tools for me, books are interactive when I take notes, books are conversational when I argue with their content, they feed my mind and feed my soul. When I’m done with a book, it doesn’t look too good, but it saves me a lot of time later on when I refer to the book once again.

I encourage you to become a student of life by taking notes, taking pictures or by writing a journal.

Some people told me they don’t have time to write their thoughts. I think that we have a tendency to find time for the things that we really enjoy. We just have to see the value of doing it.

One day, perhaps you’ll be happy to look back at your notes and re-discover what you were thinking 1, 5, 10 or 25 years earlier.

So go ahead, create filthy and dirty books to clarify your thoughts and enhance your comprehension!

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.”

Anais

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It’s always very challenging to get out of our comfort zone, to take a risk, a risk of failing, a risk of other people making fun of us. But it is the only way that I know to keep growing, to keep learning and to keep young in spirit. 

To be young in spirit is to be alive,  fully alive and more aware of everything that surrounds us. When we experience this state of mind, it seems that we have more energy, not only  for our daily tasks, but for our leisure time as well. 

I  was listening to a show on newborn babies recently. They were saying that around 2 years of age, young kids are learning about 10 new words everyday. If this is true, that means that they are learning approximately 3650 words between ages 2 and 3. Wow!

We are constantly changing. We are either moving up or moving down; progressing or regressing.

How many new words or new things did you learn in the past year?

“I don’t have enough time/money/experience” Stop Whining. Less is a good thing. Contraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.

Source; ReWork by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson page 67

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“Necessity is the mother of invention. “

Aesop,  Creator of fables ( and he was a slave)

“Never complain. Never, never complain.”

Henry Ford,  Industrialist

Do I really need to say more?

However, the real challenge is; what will you do next time you have to face a challenge about your pretend or real limitations in your life?

” You may delay, but time will not.”

Benjamin Franklin

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Life can be like the sands of time flowing through an hourglass. You probably used to feel that the sand was going slowly and that there was enough time for everything. Now, suddenly things are moving faster, you feel the sand disappearing and you start to value your life and your time differently.

The real question is: What will you do with the time that is left? For some of you, you’re at the beginning of your journey, where you’re just deciding where you want to go. For others, you may have come to a stage of your life where you’ve begun to realize that there may be more time behind you than there is ahead of you, and you feel a great urgency to make the most of it.

Your journey is not about where you’ve been; it’s about where you’re going. It’s about taking the time to stop and appreciate life, appreciate the moment and appreciate that we all have a choice—the choice to decide where we are going next and the choice to crush what’s been holding us back.

We will all die. The goal isn’t to live forever (not yet…),

What if the goal was to create something that will?

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself, “This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often.”

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, “That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again.”

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

Japanese Folktale

One night, my wife woke up at 2 Am and was inspired to write this …

Where did it come from ?

We are still wondering…

Poem by Maria Perron

I have seen a love that is so strong

That encourages people to keep holding on

So when you’re in the battle of your life

Do not despair,

For I am there

A  loving touch, a sweet caress

It seems so little but means so much

A prayer and a whisper

To let you know that I am close and love you so

So do not give up, keep strong

As my love for you will continue on

“There comes a special moment in everyone’s life;  a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he or she seizes it, it will fulfill his or her mission; a mission for which he or she is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he or she finds greatness. It is their finest hour.”

Winston Churchill

British Prime minister

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Tous les matins, je me réveille au son de mon réveille-matin fait au Japon.

Je pose mes pieds sur mon tapis de Turquie , puis j’enfile ma robe de chambre en coton du Mali.

J’emprunte l’escalier fait de bois d’acajou du Brésil.

Une fois dans la cuisine, sur le comptoir en granit de l’Inde, je me prépare un café du Guatemala à l’aide d’une machine à espresso italienne qui est faite en aluminium constitué de la bauxite de Guinée.

À ce merveilleux café j’ajoute un soupçon de sucre d’Haiti et un peu de cacao de Côte d’Ivoire.

Je mange ensuite un pamplemousse du Chili, des céréales et quelques noix d’Espagne.

J’enfile ma chemise de soie de Chine, qui a été assemblée à Taiwan, avec un veston en lin du Vietnam.

J’ajoute ma montre suisse et mon anneau d’or du Sénégal.

J’irai au travail dans une voiture allemande assemblée au Mexique, qui roulera sur des pneus italiens conçus avec du pétrole vénézuélien.

Je travaille sur mon ordinateur portable américain; je surveille la Bourse de Hong Kong, achète des actions d’une compagnie norvégienne, échange avec des amis hollandais.

Le soir, au souper, je mange une bonne baguette de pain français en l’accompagnant d’un délicieux vin espagnol et quelques fromages du Québec… tout en regardant un film marocain sous-titré en anglais.

Avant d’aller au lit, je regarderai les nouvelles pour vérifier la météo de demain et constater l’état du monde.Une nouvelle crise s’est installée au Kenya, puis a été déclassée par la sécheresse au Mozambique et le cyclone au Myannar, ensuite un tremblement de terre en Chine.

Des enfants vont à la guerre au lieu d’aller à l’école.

D’autres meurent avant même de marcher.

Et moi je prends un bon verre d’eau, non accessible à 1,2 milliard de personnes, et je retourne paisiblement dans mon lit, sous une couette faite avec des plumes d’oies  qui volent au dessus de quels pays ? Et une autre journée … demain.

Derrière tout ce que possédons ou presque, il y a des visages de femmes, d’enfants et d’hommes qui vivent aux 4 coins de la planète. Par le fait même, nous avons un lien direct avec leurs conditions de vie. J’espère que ce texte vous aide comme il l’a fait pour moi à réaliser le pouvoir que nous avons en tant que consommateurs.

Étiez-vous conscients de cette réalité?

Source; Le grand mensonge vert, Jean Sébastien Trudel et Kathy Noel. pages 102-104

Because;

 “Hard work pays off in the future, Laziness pays off now.”

Steven Wright , American comedian

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There is a time for every thing. A time to work and a time to rest. This week end should be a time to rest as much as possible. Have a great week end.

“Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”

 Anne Frank

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Most of us know exactly what has to be done and when, but sometimes we just don’t do it.  Why?

I have some important papers that I know I should put away, and I know I should have put them away many months ago. Why?

I’m the only one who knows about it, I procrastinate and I’m being lazy with this task. Why?

Because I prefer to do more exciting things… this week-end, I’ll put the papers away. I know I should have done it a long time ago and I know I’ll feel better after it’s done. It will give me satisfaction.

This is an example that is not very important, but my question to you is the following;

How many things or tasks in your life are left undone or unfinished because of plain laziness?

If there too many, what will you do about it?

“To lose patience is to lose the battle”

Mahatma Gandhi

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We don’t always have to be or look impatient to lose patience.

When we give up on something or on someone, we lose patience.

When we procrastinate with a task or a responsability, we lose patience.

When we avoid doing what we must do, we lose patience.

It is so easy to lose patience because we rarely suffer the consequences of our procrastination right away; if we did, we would modify our behavior immediately.

The more we do what we must do when we should do it, the time will come that we will do what we want  to do when we want to do it.

No matter what you do, time marches on at its own pace; tic, toc, tic, toc and there’s nothing you can do to change that .Time is a great equalizer; it runs at the same speed for everybody, rich or poor, jet pilot or snail farmer. You can’t manufacture time, you can’t reproduce time, you can’t slow time down or turn it around and make it run in the other direction. You can’t trade bad hours for good ones, either.

What you can manage, however, is your attention. Attention is a resource we all possess. Your attention reflects your conscious decisions about which activities will occupy your time. You are where your attention is… not necessarily where your body is.

The first step is to precisely understand your priorities. There’s a big difference between managing your attention to accomplish priorities and checking off items on your to-do list. Our natural tendency is to do what is fun, convenient, or absolutely necessary at any given time—but your true priorities may not fit into any of those categories.

So, here’s a question to ask yourself, “If I could accomplish only one thing right now, what would that one thing be?”

Your answer will quickly identify your top priority, where you should be directing your attention.

Life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. 

You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew.

Seek, not to find out who you are, seek to determine who you want to be.

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In the book, the 50 th law, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson said that 50 Cent is a character that he created and that very soon he will destroy it to replace it for another one.

Imagine destroying a successful project or product before the market actually destroys you. I think that Curtis Jackson is very “street smart” and has a good sense of business . He is very pragmatic and he understands what it means to take control of his destiny.

Oh by the way, what will you create for yourself?

What I CAN Change!

• You can’t change your entire life, you can only change your next action

• You can’t change a relationship with a loved one, you can only change your next interaction

• You can’t change your entire job, you can only change your next task

• You can’t change your body composition, you can only change your next meal

• You can’t change your fitness level, you can only start moving

• You can’t de-clutter your entire life, you can only choose to get rid of one thing right now

• You can’t eliminate your entire debt, you can only make one payment, or buy one less unnecessary item

• You can’t change the past, or control the future, you can only change what you are doing now

• You can’t change everything, you can only change one, small thing…and that’s all it takes

 What will you change today?

When we face a challenge, we should try to focus on what we can change in the present in order to improve the future.

Instead of worrying about who did what and who is to blame, we should focus on where we want to be and what we want.

It is important to know exactly what we want and we must act on what we want.

Action is what will transform our circumstances towards a more desirable future.

Let’s use our past experiences to guide us; while being appreciative of our present conditions.

Let’s dream of an outstanding future for ourselves, our family and friends and the rest of humanity.