đź•™ 45 years of your life are already gone

and how Tim Mcgraw is an ancient stoic

Author

Kody Duncan
July 18, 2023

Had a fun weekend camping with the youth from our church, hiking with a friend, and boating with family.

Also, recently discovered this awesome, absolutely bite-size habit newsletter. Every issue has been awesome and I can read them in like 20 seconds or less. You’ll love it!

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If Tim Mcgraw lived 2,000+ years ago, he’d be one of the famous stoic philosophers along with Zeno, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius.

Why?

Stoics love thinking about death.

Like, not in a weird way… but in a deep way.

Most people can’t even fully, consciously come to terms with the fact that the day will come that their body will be buried in the ground.

They think it’s this thing that only happens to other people.

Lemme fix that for you right now with one image.

This is your life in weeks:

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The average human lives 75 years, or 3,913 weeks, or about 27,394 days.

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“Wow Kody, I do NOT like that at all!”

…is exactly what my 10-year-old brother-in-law said when I showed him this.

It’s what I thought too, and honestly pretty much everyone I’ve shown it to.

Which means you probably won’t like this one either, which shows how much of your life is spent just sleeping, working, eating, and on your phone:

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How 45 years of your life will be spent, if you’re average.

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If you’re squirming in your seat at this point, you’re not alone.

It’s freaky.

But you can do one of two things with this information:

  1. Hide it in the deepest darkest files of your brain and expedite it to the mental incinerator.

  2. Or, follow Tim Mcgraw’s advice.

"I was finally the husband
That most of the time I wasn't
And I became a friend a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden going fishin'
Wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I, I finally read the Good Book, and I
Took a good, long, hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then

I went skydiving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"
And he said
"Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying
Like tomorrow was a gift
And you've got eternity
To think about
What you'd do with it
What could you do with it
What did I do with it?
What would I do with it?

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Pretending life is infinite breeds procrastination, mediocrity, passivity (not the good kind).

Embracing the finite is the first step to living the life Seneca preached.

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Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.

Seneca

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A couple ideas for applying todays habit example:

  1. Print out the “Your Life In Weeks” calendar and stick it on your fridge. If you’re really bold, put a little Sharpie mark on each dot (week) of your life that’s already past, and continue this moving forward.

  2. If that feels a bit too intense right now, ask yourself the question Seneca posed: “If today were my last, what finishing touches would I make to my life?” Do this each day and follow the ideas that come.

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(This one was actually an exchange between both my kids and I)

*I’m changing my son’s diaper when he tries to run away*

Daughter: “Yeah, run away!”

Me: “Why are you telling him to run away? Don’t be a bad influence!”

Daughter: “It’s because sometimes I’m gassy, so that’s why”

Son: “I want gas!”

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Thanks for reading!

- Kody

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P.S. This took me 3 hours to write.

It only takes you 3 seconds to share.