36525 days to live

All my life, I’ve felt driven to do as much as I can with my time.

I have a lot of energy.

I simply cannot sit still.

The rare time when I can sit still is when I read a book.

I’m interested in so many different things.

I want to see as much as I can, learn as much as I can.

I hate wasting time.

Oh, I was about to forget… I’m also a poor listener… because my mind is wandering all over the place when you speak to me.

Please be patient with me because I’m  also a slow learner.

But I’m working on it.

If you’re suffering from the same disease as me…   “Restlessness”,

You have to discover this man : “The Real-Life Indiana Jones“. His name is John Goddard.

Here is a video that summarizes his life story.

If you like to read and want to know more about John,

I encourage you to visit his website to learn about his life story and his life achievements.

http://www.johngoddard.info/

I encourage you to read his ” My Life List” of 127 goals.

It’s very similar to today’s “Bucket List” except that John was smart enough to think about it at the age of 15.

My personal list has a little more than 140 goals and it keeps growing… and only about 20149 days to live.

Ahhh.  I have to go now.

The clock is ticking…

Did you ever notice how daring young people are?

They seem to be less afraid of taking risks.

Why?

Are they less afraid of dying?

Personally, I don’t remember thinking of my own death before the age of 30.

One of the things that stands between us and our quality of life, is the underlying fear of death.

From the moment we don’t fear death anymore, we don’t fear life either.

When we get rid of the fear of dying, we get rid of a lot of other fears with it.

The moment that we become almost fearless, we can enjoy life to its fullest because of our willingness to take risks.

Yes but what if I fail?

Try again.

And what if I fail again?

Try again , and again, and again.

And what if my friends laugh at me?

Ask yourself ; what risk are my so-called friends taking?

Did you take the time to identify your own fears?

Screw it, let’s do it!

When you  watch little babies babble to themselves and toddlers having conversations with their stuffed animals, you can see the wealth of creativity humans are born with.

Who sold us on the lie that only artists, poets and musicians are creative?

When we were kids, we all expressed our inner Picasso as effortlessly as we would breathe. We colored outside of the lines with so much pride until some grown-ups, with good intentions, would “train” us to do it “the right way”.

But as we aged, we stifled our creativity as the mortgages, deadlines, garbages, and the stuff of life took over our days.

What can you do to recapture your childlike creativity?

“Procrastination is the thief of time.”

Edward Young (1683-1765) British poet

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A lot of people are afraid to lose their health.

In most cases, we can and will regain our health.

A lot of people are afraid to lose their friends.

We can always make new friends.

A lot of people are afraid to lose their money.

But we can always earn more money.

Very few people are conscious of the time they are wasting.

Procrastination robs us of our time and life is short.

Personally, I’m still procrastinating more than I’d like to admit.

But the older I get, the more I become aware that every wasted minute will never come back.

This makes me prioritize my activities in a better way.

This forces me to choose what I really want from what I can go without.

I cannot be all things to all people. I can’t even be all things to myself.

In which area of your life are you procrastinating?

Why ? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Is it because of fear, laziness, neglect, self-indulgence or simply because you’re not aware of it?

Come on, be honest with yourself.

No matter what your answer is; in 5 years or 10 years from now,

you will be 5  or 10 years older, and what you are avoiding will be left undone.

I woke up one morning and I experienced this enthusiasm for life.

I had this urge to live every day of my life like it’s the last one.

This is what I wrote…at 5:30 A.M.   ( I read this a couple of days later and asked myself: Wouldn’t it be nice to feel like this all the time?)

There are so many places to visit, people to meet, books to read , books to write,  movies to watch, sports to practice, dances to learn , museums to visit, conversations to have, businesses to build, gardens to cultivate, pictures to draw, wine to taste, meals to cook, children to play with, jokes to laugh at, cars to drive, planes to fly, dogs to walk, great cities to discover…

My biggest challenge is to choose what I want first and foremost.

My time is so limited and yet, when I compare myself with other species, I have so much.

I look at the ravens and the squirrels in my backyard, no sooner that I put the bread and seeds for them to eat, a bunch of them come and pick some pieces.

These creatures don’t waste any time and their lives are short and simple, yet very efficient.

What is the point of all this rambling?

It is that some of us, humans, have a tendency to complicate simple things when we should just enjoy the moment.

We have so many possible activities to indulge in when we really think about it, it is overwhelming.

Think of the type of teas and coffees to try, newspaper, magazines to read and web sites to discover.

It’s a world of unlimited possibilities.

Life is too short not to live to the fullest and not to do what we love to do.

Bored on a Sunday afternoon?

How dare you?

Think of Monday morning coming soon…

This should inspire you not to waste your precious personal time.

We have to live our passion in order to be completely happy.

Maslow wrote many years ago , “What a man must be, he must be in order to be happy”.

Personally I try to constantly spend more time to work on the things that really make me happy.

I enjoy working on projects that make me enthusiastic.

I spend quite a lot of time reading, writing, visiting art museums.

I take my time trying to understand the works of art, the painter or the sculptor’s intentions, their state of mind at the time of creation.

I like to exercise and to enjoy the outdoors activities in order to breathe some fresh air, to experience the fullness and wholeness of living.

I really enjoy travelling and discovering new countries and new cities, new cultures and new people.

Well, I’m passionately curious!

Ask yourself:

What are the limitations that are preventing you to live your dream’s life?

What do you really enjoy doing when you have free time?

How could you spend more time on what you really care about?

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P.S. Here is an interesting TED talk on the secrets of success… ( short, inspiring and humoristic) 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html

Because the meaning of your life is!

It’s all about response-ability!

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“Should we look for meaning at all?”  

“I doubt whether anyone can answer this question in general terms.  

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and 

from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life  

in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given  

moment…One should not search for an abstract meaning of life.  

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out  

a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot  

be replaced nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as  

unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.  

As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents  

a problem for him to solve, the questions of the meaning of life may  

actually be reversed. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning  

of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he which is asked.  

In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to  

life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being  

responsible.” 

Viktor Frankl

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“Joy is not in things, it is in us!”

Benjamin Franklin

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In our consumer society, we are bombarded everyday with advertisements that try to persuade us that we need a certain new toy to be happy.

And once we get the new house, new car, new boat, new clothes …will it really make us happy?

And for how long?

Benjamin Franklin wrote this quote more than 250 years ago before the advent of the consumer society.

William James, father of modern American psychology, said: “Most folks are as happy as they make up their mind to be”

I believe they were right. Joy has to be from inside us.

Where does your joy come from?

“The first rule is, to keep an untroubled spirit.”

“The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) 
Roman emperor and philosopher

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When I try to live each day like if it was my last, it gives me “an untroubled spirit” because of the satisfaction of having done the best that I could with the resources and the opportunities that were given to me.

When I try to look things in the face, it forces realism on me, it is not what happens to me, it is how I react to what happens to me.

Do you find it difficult to look at things for what they really are?  

                                                 OR                                             

Do you INSIST on seeing things AS YOU WANT to see them? 

One of the great illusions in our life is to be addicted to busyness, it gives us the feeling of being productive, but are we really?

There are so many demands in our lives that it becomes very easy to lose focus.

Then there is the information overload or all kinds of other activities, this is especially true in the Summer Holiday season.

It’s not always easy to SAY NO to less important activities when we should  SAY YES to our most important projects.

It requires constant vigilance.

The time that we waste will never come back.

I repeat; the time that we waste will never come back!

It is a sad reality but it is also a great wake-up call.

How do you make sure that you don’t waste too much precious time?

How do you keep the focus on your most important projects?

How do you know that you spend your time on what you really care about?

“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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