Today I'm 36. Statistically that's halfway there and this feels weird. I'm too young to be middle age 🤨
Yes your expected lifespan increases as you get older. First few years are the toughest, but then you're good into your late 50's when bodies begin to fail. Men also have a spike in their early 20's because we do a lot of dumb shit at that age.
But life expectancy at birth for Slovenia was 72 back in 1987.
Time is the one thing in your life you can't get more of. Best you can do is spend what you've got wisely. It's weird to think that I've already spent half of mine. Probably. Could be more!
4000 Weeks is a great book on this topic, if you're interested. Burkeman talks about how the average human gets 4000 weeks, spends a good third growing up, and gets ~2600 weeks to achieve their life's work. Defined however you wish, it's your life.
Tim Urban visualizes a similar concept in his Your Life in Weeks article. Except he uses 90 years, which is 18 more than I'm statistically going to get. Ooof.
The book that really hit home for me is Schwarzenegger's Be Useful. It aligns with something that's been on my mind lately – Life isn't a dress rehearsal.
"Swizec, you're not doing this thing to practice or learn for your true attempt later", my mind would go (especially after smoking some weed), "this is all happening in real-time, you ARE doing what you're doing, there is no later"
Make sure the thing you're doing is worth doing.
Cheers,
~Swizec
Continue reading about Halfway there
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