My Life on Tape
Not a blockbuster at this point but the reviews are still hopeful.
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom Psalm 90:12, New Living Translation.
When it comes to days or wisdom, according to one of my doctors, I do not have much of either.
My doctor walks into the exam room carrying a paper tape measure. He says, “How old are you?” “54,” I say. He tears off everything below 54" and says, “That’s all in the past,” and he throws it away.
He says the average life expectancy in our county is 74 (Davidson County) and he tears off everything after 74". “That’s eternity.” He throws it away.
He hands me this piece of the tape measure with 20 inches on it (from 54" — 74") and says, “Each inch represents a year of your life. What are you going to do with the rest of it?” I now call this “my life tape.”
One way to process this information is to get very depressed. If the statistics held, I had 20 years left of my life. When men view their lives as half over and realize many of their dreams may not happen this can lead to a midlife crisis.
According to my life tape, currently, I am 72% through my life. I’ve never been good at math but that seems like it’s much worse than 50%!
That doctor’s appointment was two years ago. Since then, I came across another, slightly more forgiving tool. Oriane Dinse wrote an article concerning Mondays, that identified how many weeks one statistically has left to live.
According to this website, I have 1,796 weeks left to live or I should statistically live until I’m 83. I’ll take it! Oh, then I remember that I have heart disease so all bets are off on either website.
I have my life tape taped to the bottom of my computer monitor (pictured above) so I see it every day while I work. My wife worries that my consistent acknowledgment of this tape is me “fixating” on this statistic in an unhealthy way.
I honestly don’t see it and get depressed. I see it and am disappointed in the way I’ve chosen to spend much of my adult life. I’m saddened by several wasted opportunities. I regret how many times I’ve allowed the fear of failure to stop me from trying things that I might have enjoyed.
This brings me to the other way to process my mortality. This way to process is the reason my doctor gave me this life tape in the first place. His goal was to motivate me to continue working to improve myself. This is by far, the healthy way to process this information.
Besides being cool and a little morbid, the Failflow site indicates how many weeks individuals have left to live to motivate them to action. There’s nothing quite like contemplating the finiteness of life to help you to stop procrastinating.
If there was ever a procrastinator, it is me! While I have lofty goals and big dreams, there seems to be a disconnect between dreaming and doing. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that without the doing, then the dreams have a very low (if not impossible) chance of happening.
The most important part of dreaming is doing. It’s like the Jerry Seinfeld bit on taking the reservations and holding the reservations.
Jerry has a reservation with a rental car place and when he gets there they tell him that they have run out of cars.
You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them. — Jerry Seinfeld
I’ve never been as old as I am now. I’m not as physically healthy nor physically fit as I used to be. To strive to extend my life as long as possible, I have the choice to eat healthier and take better care of myself.
I have the choice to make better use of the time I have left. I can choose to lay around and binge Netflix or I can choose to use that time working toward my goals and dreams. Sure, sometimes I need to relax with Netflix, but not all the time.
Even at my age, I still have time to take action working on my goals and working toward my dreams.
I can be encouraged with each completed task that gets me one step closer to each goal. Even as a heart patient, I can strive to experience the joy of the journey!
I do not know if any of my dreams or even items on my bucket list will ever happen, but it won’t be because of my lack of trying.
None of us are promised tomorrow. Even if tomorrow comes, we have no idea what will happen tomorrow. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog — it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. James 4:14 New Living Translation.
I would say the reviews are still out on all of our futures! As for me, I’m looking forward to the rest of my life. I want to make it the best it can be!
How about you?