Life expectancy


It seems to me that we are stubborn students of life.

Life seems to tell us; here is a situation you need to face for your own developpement, and yet, most of the time, we will try to avoid the lesson. Why? Because it’s too damned hard! The curious thing about this is: the lesson we try to avoid seems to come back to us in many unexpected ways. Somehow, we can’t escape it. We have to meet the challenge.

An example?

I know some people (actually quite a lot of them) who move from relationship to relationship only to discover after a while the same problems they were experiencing in the previous relationship. It seems to me that what they are trying to avoid comes back to them in another form and with a new label.

Personally, I start too many new projects and I don’t finish all of them. I know it, I’m aware of this but somehow, it doesn’t seem  to change. I have to admit I can’t do  it alone. When I face this kind of situation, I try to find a coach, a mentor or a personal trainer to make sure I am accountable to someone.

When we focus on the moment and accept to face what we have to, it can be difficult, but it is one of the best ways to grow, to outgrow the challenge.

What does this post have to do with time?

If we do what WE MUST do when WE HAVE TO do it, the day will come when we will do what WE WANT to do WHEN WE WANT TO do it.

The sooner we understand this concept and we put it in practice, the more time we will save to do other activities that we really enjoy.

Will you try it?

“I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at the time.”

Charles Schulz, Peanuts, cartoon

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A while ago, a lady went to a restaurant in downtown Montreal to celebrate her birthday with her husband , as they entered the restaurant, apparently they asked the hostess for a seat near the window to get access to a better view…

This is an excerpt of the Montreal Gazette July 17, 2009

“MONTREAL – One minute Thursday night, a couple was quietly celebrating a birthday inside the Mikasa Sushi Bar on Peel St.; the next minute, a concrete slab crashed through the glass skylight above them, killing the 33-year-old woman instantly.

Her husband of two years, also 33, lay next to her lifeless body screaming, “Ma femme! Ma femme! Stay with me!”

He pleaded for help, but other diners and staff were paralyzed with shock. Minutes later, sobbing and screaming, the man was loaded into an ambulance, his right hand wrapped in a blood-soaked napkin, two single tracks of blood running down his cheek.

“Her birthday was Monday, that’s what they were celebrating,” said the nurse, who spoke on condition that her name not be published. The concrete panel from the 18th floor of the Marriott Residence Inn crashed through the sloping glass ceiling of the restaurant, which lies directly below at street level, and hit the woman “directly” – while she was seated at her table, said Montreal police Constable Olivier Lapointe.”

The last thing this couple was expecting on that evening was a piece of concrete to fall on the woman’s head…  33 years old.   (12 045 days)

The reason why I bring up this story today is to show that when we have regrets about the past or worries about the future, we waste precious time and energy. We must focus on the present.

This is where our attention should be because this is where we have a little more control over what happens to us. This lady didn’t have much control over what happened to her that night.

Today, try to focus your attention on what you can influence and the rest will take care of itself.

I agree with the creator of Peanuts; we should only “dread one day at a time”

How many days to you “dread” in advance?

“Instead of concerning ourselves with what will come tomorrow, we should be thankful for what we have today, which is good health for most of us, a roof over our heads, food to fill our stomachs and free time to enjoy with our family and friends. This does not mean that we should not plan for tomorrow. It just means that we should not let it control us to the point where it takes us away from what we are able to do today.”

Stephen Lafond

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“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils”

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) French composer

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Time is a great teacher when we dare to make mistakes.

Time is a greater and more effective teacher when we accept to learn from our mistakes.

Time is the greatest and wisest teacher when we learn from the mistakes of others and avoid to make them ourselves.

Time will eventually kill all of us, and since we don’t know when, one of the most important lessons Time can teach us is:  To live each day to the fullest..

What did Time teach you recently?

What would you do differently if you learned that you had 3 months left to live?

Oh really!    

Why wait?

“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… fill your own excuse here ______________________

When… when…when will you stop making excusessss?

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Confucius

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We are so good at making  life complicated. Don’t you find it amazing that we can send people on the moon and bring them back and yet,  so many of us have a hard dealing with their  day to day lives?

Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning.
We give our own meaning to time as to life.

JLH

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“I can’t go back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

 Lewis Carroll

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We cannot change the past, we can learn from the past and we can avoid repeating the same mistakes too many times over.

Someone will say;  “This is so obvious!”

Yes it is!

Why do so many of us let our lives be governed by our personal history if we can’t go back to yerterday?

See all we have in life is time. From the moment of our first breath, the clock started ticking. The sands of time started to fall down the hourglass and the fuse of our life started to burn down.

Until I value myself, I won’t value my time……..

Unknown author

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“Life is a one-way street, and we are not coming back.”

Anon

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“If you’re not doing something with your life, it doesn’t matter how long it is. If you’re doing something with your life, it doesn’t matter how long it is. Life does not consist of years lived, but of its usefulness.
If you are giving, loving, serving, helping, encouraging and adding value to others, you have a useful life”

Author unknown

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“Sometimes I wish life had a fast-forward button.”

Dan Chopin

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When it’s time to pay the bills,

When it’s time to take out the garbage,

When it’s time to clean the house,

When it’s time for a rainy day,

When we experience illness,

Of course most of us don’t enjoy these moments, but how could we really appreciate the good times if we always have good times?

We enjoy earning money and after we pay the bills.

We produce garbage with our lifestyle, then we must get rid of it.

We live in our houses and have to clean them once in a while.

We enjoy the sun especially after a couple of rainy days.

We enjoy feeling energetic after being slowed down by the flu.

So yes, sometimes I wish life would have a fast-forward button, but it’s only a wish, it’s  not reality.

“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.”

Mark Twain

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“Time cools; time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.”

Thomas Mann

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Good news, bad news, good mood, bad mood, joy, disappointments, new and exciting projects, boring routine, sunny day, rainy day, entertainment, lazy sunday afternoon…

This is what life is made of and each one of us must make the best of it.

One of the best lines I have ever read is from Anthony Di Mello who said: I AM NOT my depression.

He meant that we all have bad days but we can choose to watch our bad mood as a spectator would watch a movie, we don’t have to identify with it, we can simply become the observer of our mood.

Remember that it is not what happens to us but how we react to what happens to us that matters.

Do you spend too much time worrying about your mood swings?

Do you accept that you can have a bad day and just witness yourself having a bad day?

 

 

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Louis Pasteur, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”
 
— Jackson Brown Jr., writer
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“Time is like money, the less we have of it to spare the further we make it go.”

Josh Billings

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When I was 5 years old, I couldn’t care less about time.

When I was 15 years old, it seemed to me that everything was always taking too long to happen.

When I was 25 years old, it seemed like I was always so busy and running out of time.

When I was 35 years old, with a wife and children, a business to run, and bills to pay, I really had less and less time.

Now at almost 45 years old, I know that we never have enough time to do everything but we always have time to do the most important.

The more pressure we have with time, the more productive we seem to become.

Are you making the most of the time you have?

“Don’t feel entitled to anything you don’t sweat and struggle for”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939- )

American activist and founder of the Children’s Defence Fund

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Did you ever hear the saying “Easy come, easy go”? There seems to be an unwritten law in nature that takes away what we don’t deserve or what we didn’t work hard enough for. There is no way to prove it, but we can witness it over and over again in the form of people winning the lottery and spending everything very quickly, or children who inherit from rich parents without having to work for their money. Another variaton of this is when people have such an easy life that they are unable to cope when disaster strikes.

Do you often try to take some shortcut in order to get what you want?

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”

— Mother Teresa, charity worker

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When we give a sincere compliment, it costs us nothing, but it enriches the person who receives it. It usually doesn’t take much of our time, but it has a long lasting effect on the recipient.

Why don’t we take time to give more compliments?

“Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live”

Dorothy Thompson, journalist

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I hear you say “Why?” Always “Why?” You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

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This is the reason why we talk about George Bernard Shaw; he dared to say WHY NOT?

How many times in our lives did we say WHY and the main reason was our concern for the opinion of others?

How many times we did not dare SAY THE THING or DO THE THING because of fear or timidity?

Benjamin Franklin used to say ; “Do something worth writing about or write something worth reading if you don’t want to be forgotten an hour after your death.”

Will you dare say WHY NOT ?

 I really enjoyed this clip and I’m sharing it with you.

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How many days do you or I have left to live on this planet?

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?