I have some news to share with you…

You are going to die.

Yes, you.

This might sound cold, but it is the truth.

We are human beings, nothing more than living, breathing, organisms —composed of cells, bacteria, and DNA —similar to every other animal species on this earth.

Sometimes we think that we are different.

Sometimes we think we are God-like creatures.

No, we are not.

We are animals, and biologically, not much different.

That being said, we are exceptional animals; animals that have medicine, restaurants, libraries, rocket ships, and iPhones.

What’s truly awe-inspiring is we have the ability to make choices.

These choices are not solely driven by our reptilian brain, but driven by our heart, gut, and mind.

Regardless of your biological classification — time is ticking.

Your existence is coming to an end (at least your physical existence).

But you’re not alone, we are all right there with you.

I’m going to die and so will your friends, family, and dog.

It’s fine.

It’s not bad, cynical, nor sad — it’s reality.

Believing differently or ignoring the fact that you WILL die one day [soon], might be the worst possible thing you can do.

This type of thinking leads to a wasteful life.

A wasteful life is a life without purpose, a life without love, a life without passion, a life without adventure, a life without mastery. A wasteful life is a life created by others’ expectations, without making your own decisions, and without following your own path.

That said, we are humans, both flawed and fortunate. We are GOING to ‘waste time’. And that’s okay, it’s part of life in itself and it can be fun, relaxing, and NEEDED.

But wasting time can be done in a right and wrong way. If you take one thing from this post, know that time – wasted or productive – needs to be a choice rather than the lack of action.

In Ryan Holiday’s newsletter, the Daily Stoic, he writes about how Seneca says we should never spend an hour of our time without knowing what the return was.

“He was saying we can’t waste time, we can’t just let life happen. We can’t let the pages fall from the calendar, the days tick by. Because we’ll never get them back. They belong to death now.

This isn’t to say you have to spend every minute working. Or focus exclusively on ‘productivity.’ On the contrary, you have to live. You have to know what you’re spending that life on. You have to be aware.”

Be Aware

We are nearly a fourth of the way into 2024, that’s roughly 25% of the year that has passed by. What have you done with your time? Have you stuck to your new year resolutions, have you crushed your job, have you picked up a new skill or hobby, have you kept the momentum going from last year?

Either way, time has gone by, it’s not standing still, and you surely can’t wait it out.

Hopefully, there is plenty of it left.

Of course, that measly 25% might not mean much to you, because hell, we have over 75% of the year still left!

Plenty of time to crush our goals and get on track.

But these years are completely arbitrary. A percentage of a ‘year left’ or a ‘year gone’ is based on a preconceived notion that a calendar starts on January 1st.

In the book The Power of Moments, authors Dan and Chip Heath talk about how all time is arbitrary, but that we have a ‘natural hunger’ for landmarks in time.

For example, the New Year has a ‘fresh start effect’. It’s not about a resolution, we likely want the exact same thing on December 31st as we do on January 1st. However we create this mental accounting trick we play on our mind. Last year was old me, this year is new me. Birthdays (18,21,30,40, etc.) and other landmarks have this same effect.

We view each of these landmarks as milestones and create mechanisms to create a comprehensible, but structured lifespan.

Power of Choice

Just know that you have power.

You get to choose how to live and how to spend your time.

So ask yourself: What are you craving? What are you trying to accumulate? What are you trying to eliminate? Are you following your passion? Are your days full of purpose? Are you happy? Are you healthy? How are you spending you time?

Mark Sisson, founder of the Primal Blueprint wrote in his weekly newsletter – Mark’s Daily Apple, that it’s okay to ‘waste time’.

“But when you do ‘waste’ it, make it worthwhile. ‘Waste time’ by taking naps. ‘Waste time’ by doing puzzles for hours with your kid. ‘Waste time’ by watching a great movie or bingeing a great show.

However you waste your time, do so with intent and really enjoy and savor every minute. What you’ll find is that wasting time in this manner energizes you, gets you going, gets you moving, makes you want to take advantage of the ‘productive’ hours of the day.”

There always needs to be a balance between a ‘productive life’ and a ‘wasteful life’, just make sure you are the one making that choice.

You get to choose how to live and how much enjoyment you get from it — so act on it.  

You are going to die. 

I am going to die.

We are all going to die. 

Just make sure the time you have left is time well spent. 

Own the Process, 

Tim 

Author of Mastery Monday

Student & Founder