(Photo courtesy of Oliver Sjostrom from Unsplash)
If you are as old as 31-years old, you have already qualified as a billionaire. Congratulations!
You have survived birth, the “terrible teens,” and then some. You’ve lived more than a billion seconds. You won the human experience lottery. Did you realize that? We often give “lip service” to how valuable time is, but are you consciously valuing your lifetime or just taking things for granted?
If you meet average life expectancies, you may have more than a billion seconds more, maybe even two billion. That’s a wealth of opportunity. Too few realize the gift they’ve been given or their billionaire status.
Time spent with parents drops by the age of twenty. If you have children, time with them is maybe around twenty years and peaks in the late 30’s or 40’s and then drops sharply. After that, we spend more and more time alone. How have you valued your time with family? Are you comfortable with yourself?
Sahil Bloom penned an interesting article on this very subject that inspired this. He writes: “As ambitious people, we spend most of our lives playing a game: Everything we do is in anticipation of a future. When it comes, we just reset to the next one:
- “I can’t wait until I’m 18 so I can [X].”
- “I can’t wait until I’m 25 so I can [Y].”
- “I can’t wait until I’m 45 so I can [Z].”
It’s natural, but it’s a dangerous game—one that we will lose…eventually.
We waste a lot of energy on past and future when present is all that’s guaranteed. We push for more—but really, we need to find our enough.”
Recently, I have been occupied writing books to help others. In doing so, it has caused me to be highly reflective of my own life, the memories of both intended and unintended, the family, friends, and mentors – my life. I now witness younger folks traversing similar roads I once traveled, but no longer ever will. I can’t sit down with my grandparents or parents and ask them the questions which I would find so very interesting now. Earlier I either didn’t have the time or interest in doing so. Live long enough and you may go through a similar scenario. The things I once imagined I needed to do, be, and have have been replaced. I find joy, beauty, peace, and contentment in being a multi-billionaire – something some of those dear to me have been denied. It just keeps pointing to the realization of gratitude.
This all reminds me to be just a bit more mindful and grateful for my continuing present moments. It is all about staying aware of the unpredictable and preciousness of the time we do have. It’s about the embracing all of life’s experiences and never allowing the quest for more to distract you from the beauty of enough.
