By Jayaram V
People celebrate birthdays and new year days. They eagerly wait
for annual events like festivals and anniversaries. A twenty year
old believes that he or she is special and can make a difference
to the world. Youngsters usually tend to stereotype older people
and consider them outdated or irrelevant. In many countries seniority
and experience do not get due importance. There is even a fallacy
that older people are difficult to control, are less motivated,
and do not learn quickly. If you live in India, by the time you
reach your mid 30s you will be used to being addressed as an uncle
or auntie, even by those who may be just a few years younger or
older than you. If you are in your fifties or sixties, you will
most likely feel a growing alienation between you and the world
around you. That feeling keeps increasing as you age further.
Perceptions matter. If you change your perceptions, your thinking
and outlook will also change. For example, measuring our lives in
years somehow blinds us to the reality of how precious our lives
and time are. Instead, think for a while your life in terms of days,
and see how you will have a different perspective.
For example, do you know the difference in age in terms of days
between a 20 year old person and a 30 year old person? It is about
3,650 days. Double it, and you get the difference in age between
a 20 year old person and a 40 year old person. Think, how 7,000
or so days make so much difference in a person's thinking and feeling
towards others. At the age of 20 you feel young and energetic. By
40, you might have seen it all and know where you stand. Is it also
not strange that in that same time, the world also begins to think
about you differently and treat you differently? In just 7000 days,
life changes for you forever. In another 7000 days, you will be
at 60 and thinking of your retirement. None of your friends probably
know how you were at 20.
Thinking of your age in days, changes your perspective and makes
you value your life. Do another math. Consider that your expected
lifespan is about 90 years. Multiply that with 365. You will get
32,850 days. It is your expected lifespan in days. Deduct from it
the number of years you have already spent. Say for example, if
your age is 30, deduct 10,950 days (30 X 365) from it. The balance
21,900 will be your remaining life in days. That is all you got
to spend. Whether you are rich or poor, failure or a success, it
is all you get at that age, which will keep decreasing by day but
will never increase. At the most, if you are lucky, you may get
a bonus of another 4000 days by longivity. How should you spend
that time? The following table shows how many days are left in the
life of a person at different age levels, assuming that the life
span is 90 years.
| Expected Age |
Remainig Age At Diff. Lifespans |
| Current Age, Yrs |
Current Age, Days |
At 90 yr |
At 80yrs |
At 70yrs |
| 90 |
32,850 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 60 |
21,900 |
10,950 |
7,300 |
3,650 |
| 50 |
18,250 |
14,600 |
10,950 |
7,300 |
| 40 |
14,600 |
18,250 |
14,600 |
10,950 |
| 30 |
10,950 |
21,900 |
18,250 |
14,600 |
| 20 |
7,300 |
25,550 |
21,900 |
18,250 |
Thinking about your life in terms of days adds perspective. It
makes you look at your life differently and spend your days wisely.
Imagine that you are left with just 5000 days to live, that is roughly
about 13-14 years. What should you do? Should you still worry about
that extra million dollars you were hoping to make from a business
deal or review your life and do something that makes your life worth
living or more pleasant? Each day counts. It is what one should
learn at an early age. 30,000 days will just come and go and life
rolls by. They say that submarine probes from the earth will land
on Titan and IO, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, sometime in 2040's.
How many of us would be alive until then? Many people who are alive
today will miss that landing and all the excitement. Each day is
precious. Many people learn this lesson very late in their lives.
The days that are gone are gone forever. It is therefore time you
review your priorities and think about your life differently.