The Simplest Idea I Use To Help Me Avoid Indecision
Time is an asset. Your most important one.
How many weeks do you think a person lives?
A book author asked his friends after he made the calculation (and thought the number was small).
“310,000”
That’s what one of his friends said… Mind you that that’s the number of weeks… humans have existed.
I asked the same question to my coworkers. Nobody knew the answer. They looked confused.
The book I read is called Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman.
By now you can guess how many weeks the average person lives (hint: four thousand, or about 80 years).
You might live more. You might hit the grave much sooner. But, on average, that's what you get.
Yet, 99% of people live life carefree. Like they’re going to celebrate the next 762 Christmases.
And I’m not gonna lie… I was one of them. Still am… I still waste my time on:
Useless Netflix TV Shows (Is it Cake, anyone?).
Random sh*t on Reddit
Even more random sh*t on
TwitterX
But the difference is now I’m more aware I’m wasting my life, instead of thinking I’m gonna live forever. And when I catch myself focused on useless things, I always remeber this question:
“Is this going to matter a year from now?”
99.99% of the time the answer is no.
Why?
Because time = life. And if you give your time to something that doesn’t matter, your giving away a part of your life you’ll never recover. Gone, forever.
"Time isn't a commodity, something you pass around like a cake. Time is the substance of life. When anyone asks you to give your time, they're really asking for a chunk of your life."
This quote from Antoinette Bosco is one of those slaps in the face you can’t forget.
Every time you give your time to something/someone, you're giving away a piece of your life. A little chunk of what makes you you that's never coming back:
The evenings you wasted arguing with strangers on Instagram? Gone.
The afternoons you spent on TikTok watching puppy videos? Gone.
The mornings you spent following the news? Gone.
Time is a ship. And everybody’s ship is sinking. Fast.
You’ll never know how much time you have left. And you are never gonna get more of it.
I’m not saying this to make you depressed. On the contrary. It’s to make you see how beautiful life is. And to give you courage to grab life by its horns and make the most of it.
After all… you only get to live once.
Next time you’re wasting time on the useless stuff that won’t matter in the future, remember that:
Time is an asset. Your most important one.
2 months ago a friend of mine told me their cousin died.
A guy in their 40’s. He was at home, alone. Slipped, hit his head, and died.
It’s that easy for the lights to go out.
If you had 1 month to live, what would suddenly become useless in your life?
Politics?
The news?
Social media?
A handful of friends?
What would become important?
Your family?
Your closest friends?
All the experiences you haven’t had yet?
Most people don’t care about this stuff. And I understand why.
90% of people still have years ahead of them. So why worry about death now??
I like to think I’m one of the lucky ones that’ll get to live a long life.
But you can’t know for sure when the lights will go out. That’s why every time something/someone demands a chunk of my time, I ask myself:
Do they deserve it? Do they really deserve it?
This can be applied to many areas, like:
Friends that leave you drained after you hang out with them
The collection of useless objects you have in your closet
Hottest new iPhone with a better camera
(You have to work to get money buy stuff, so stuff costs you time in the form of money)
It’s never easy to say no to someone. But it’s your life we’re talking about here. At some point you need the courage to do what’s best for you. Not please everyone else while life goes by like another car in traffic.
It’s your chance to choose what matters
You have big dreams.
But you also have too many options.
Too many decision to make about your future.
Too many friends to reach out to
Too side hustles you can start
It’s easy to get paralyzed, trying to choose the best road.
Right now I’m stressing about 7 different things. And when you focus on 7 different problems, your attention is too spread out. You can’t make progress. Everything feels hard. You’re stuck.
This is why I always remind myself that:
If you don't choose, you're also choosing.No matter how much you fight making a decision, that in itself is a decision you’re making.
You’re not going to live forever. So what are you going to choose to do today?