It’s crazy to think that things in life are so finite you can count them

Let’s say you’re 30 years old right now and you live a long life of 90 years:

- If you live in a temperate zone, like Canada, you only have 60 more summers to enjoy. If you put all those summers in a row, that's 15 straight years of summer. Imagine turning 15 and never getting to enjoy another summer ever again.

- If you read four books a year, that leaves you with 240 to read for the rest of your life. Right now, it feels like you can read all the books you want in the world. But nope, you only get 240. If you picked one a day, you could finish a lifetime booklist this year.

- If you go to an NBA game every three years, that leaves you with 20 more for the rest of your life. That’s about 45 hours, which is one workweek for a lot of people.

Yeah for sure!

I think the mods took it down :(

Hey I’m glad to hear this resonated with you!

You’re definitely not alone—I go through periods where I feel like it’s been wasted time and I beat myself up over it and then I go through periods where it feels like I’m just killing it

Glad you could take something away from this 😄

Hahah yeah definitely just a hobby for me 😅

Appreciate the comment 🙌

Glad you feel the same! 😄

I’m right there with you!

There’s definitely times where I’m in a deep trough and my commitment gets tested—I don’t always come out on top

But aslong as I do come out in top more times than I don’t, and I see progress, then I count that as a win for myself 🙌

Goodluck! 😄

My struggle with this always reminds me of Roosevelts quote

“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

It’s so true

I’m lucky I have things in my life that are worth working hard for. I’m grateful there are things I care enough about

Can definitely relate to that feeling, but glad things are slowing down and more enjoyable!

What do you think made the difference going back to school?

I’m struggling with determining the same exact thing!

Logically, it feels like efficiency and productivity are the only way to get the results I want, but if the end goal is to put myself in a position to enjoy it, why not enjoy it now?

Helpful to see that there are others toiling with this idea! Thanks for sharing 😄

Yeah that last sentence you said has been the theme of my past year or two

I definitely feel you on that

My huge focus right now is striking the balance between results and enjoyment. Not sure how much sacrifice to make for future happiness

There’s two other points I think of related to this

Henry Thoreau makes a good point saying most people are active participants in life enough to do physical labor, less are active participants enough to exert themselves intellectually, and very few live actively enough to have a remarkable life.

Maria Popova said something similar adding:

"But in our age of productivity, we spend our days running away from boredom, never mind its creative and spiritual benefits, and toward maximum efficiency."

Haha I’ve def had periods of dealing with bad death anxiety, but lately reading about things like this have helped me

I hope this post has more insight than stress for you!

Damn, things seem hectic but you still come off as composed—really putting your life in your hands and driving it

That’s inspiring to hear

Also, I’ve often thought about going to school later in life for a passion of mine (animation) so that’s a nice thing to see from someone else

Really appreciate this insightful comment! Thanks for sharing your current experience 🙌

Also glad I could remind you of the song Vienna again haha! Going to listen to “A little bit if everything” right now

Haha yeah I did post it before!

The discussion was so great I wanted to see if anyone had fresh perspectives 😄

Wow that’s awesome to hear

It’s motivating to see that we can pick up a craft and study it at any time

I hope to continue doing the same as you—learn, try new things, and explore

Thanks for sharing this 😄

Soooo easy (for me at least) to stray away from the moment, but this is a good reminder

The present is all we have

Another thing I have to focus on being super intentional with

Thanks for this comment 😄

Yeah that’s a solid point to be more intentional about

When I operate in a vaccum, oblivious to everything outside of my life, it’s always the most peaceful and joyful times

It’s worth it to cultivate that environment and ignore fomo

Thanks for sharing! 🙌

It makes me think of this quote too:

“Man surprises me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the results being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”—Daila Lama

We can get so frantic about living that we forget to live.

I can relate to both sentiments you shared!

I definitely went through a period where I wanted to get my “act” together and stop being a certain way in certain scenarios

I also feel like I wouldn’t trade my negative experiences for better ones, even if I could, because then I just wouldn’t be me today. Me now can handle things that I couldn’t before because of those. So it’s bitter sweet

Thanks for sharing that!😄

On a similar not, this quote always makes me want to cherish each day

“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives”—Annie Dillard

My life is what I decide to do today. So with that in mind, I want to make each “today” as enjoyable as possible.

I can relate to that first part for sure! Being more comfortable and confident with age I think is what made the difference for me

I’m completely comfortable in solitude—it’s even needed at times

Recently I’ve been reading authors write about their experience dealing with old age, and a common theme I see is that over the years their ego dies

They go from thinking life was all about them to realizing they aren’t special

But that realization was actually positive and made life more enjoyable

Wow that is really well said, I think I agree with everything

I’m in a similar situation as you. I work full time as an accountant and am in the CPA professional education program working to get the designation, and on the side do writing and also bought a drawing pad to learn art and animation

Animation gets fully ignored during a CPA module and writing gets a back seat

So I think you hit it in the head—I think it comes down to how much are you willing to risk in adulthood. I could drop the CPA aspirations and that would immediately give me so much free time to write and learn animation, but I would give up significant salary upside

Thanks for sharing that 😁 glad to read thoughts I can relate to

Hmm wow that is food for thought—definitely is challenging my brain with how I see things

Reminds me of something I recently read that said real life is about altruism

Thanks for sharing this 😄