“We have two lives, and the

second begins when we realize

we only have one.” —Confucius

3 charts that will inspire you to

make the most of your 90 years:
I recently came across an blog post
by Tim Urban called, “The Tail End.”

It’s a legendary essay on his blog,

“Wait But Why.”

A quick read. But a profound wakeup

call.

Here’s the breakdown…

Tim visually charts a 90-year human
life in units of weeks.

It fits on a single page.

He was 34 at the time, so imagine
more than a third of those weeks
“crossed out.”

But rather than measuring the rest of

his life in units of weeks… he charts
it in activities.

For example, he says “I have a little

under 60 winters left.”
or “I read about five books a year,

so even though it feels like I’ll read an

endless number of books in the
future,

I actually have only 300 left.”

or

“I tend to limit myself to around one

ocean swim a year.

So as weird as it seems, I might only

go in the ocean 60 more times.”
But here’s the profound part—

Some activities decrease

dramatically as you get older (rather
than being evenly spaced out).

Such as… days spent with parents.

Let’s say you see your parents 6

weekends per year (12 days).

But before college, you saw them

pretty much every day.
Assuming they live healthily into their
90s,

12 days per year x 30 years =

360 more days together… total.

Now, compare that to your first 18

years of seeing them ~every day.

The time you spent with them before

college (7k days)

was 95% of your total time with them

over the course of your life…
You’re now enjoying the last 5% of
total in-person time with your
parents.

This is the tail end.

As Tim says, “despite not being at
the end of your life,

you may very well be nearing the end

of your time with some of the most
important people in your life.”

So what do we do with that

information?
Here are the 3 takeaways:

1). Try to live close to the people you

love.

We probably see the people who live

in the same city 10x as often as we
see the people who live a flight away.
2). Don’t leave time together up to
chance.

If it’s not in the calendar, it won’t

happen.

Schedule when you’ll see the most

important people in your life
throughout 2023.

Do it now, so your calendar doesn’t

accidentally become too busy to see
them.
3). Be mindful of how little time you
have left together.

If you’re in your last 10% of time with

someone you love, make every hour
with them count.

And tell them how you feel about

them (to an embarrassingly frequent
extent).

Life’s too short for things to go left

unsaid.
Thanks for reading.

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P.S. You can find the original article

by Tim Urban at waitbutwhy.com

I hope you enjoy the illustration of

how many dumplings he has left to
eat in his lifetime. 🥟