(Note: I wrote this article last year, but the message is the same. The beginning of the new year allows us to reflect and reset for the new year. I hope this article inspires you.)
Happy New Year! It is now 2022!. Can you believe that in three months, it will be two years since Covid has been here? A lot of people have passed on, because of Covid. People are still passing away because of it.
At my job, two of my coworkers lost their husbands. One lady had been married for decades and she’s in her late 50’s. The other couple were in their 30’s and had only been married for 5 years with two little children.
Another colleague lost her young cousin to Covid (he had the vaccination shots). He was on a ventilator and brain dead. All of her family said their goodbyes to him over the camera phone before the plug was pulled on him. All of us that have made it through these past two years have a lot to live for. And it’s not over yet. But at least we’re still here.
With people around me that lost family members to Covid, my biological father’s passing, and even famous musicians, tv, and movie stars that I grew up on passing away in the last few years, I’ve come to realize how precious life is. Time is moving, and we must make the best of it. Time waits for no man. So what are we to do?
28,470
Do you know what that number represents? It represents your life. Let me explain.
Recently, while working on some paperwork at the job, a gentleman by the name of Clark Kegley came across my YouTube timeline. His video named The Ultimate Guide to Keeping a Journal caught my attention. Since I’ve been journaling since 2009, I thought I’d watch his video to possibly get new pointers on how to better my journaling!
Anyway, his video gave me a lot of good pointers. But what really gave me a major paradigm shift was the five-digit numbers that he would place on the inside of his journal on the book cover.
He explained what the number meant. But first, I believed he uttered the numbers
32,850
What is 32,850? That is the total amount of days that you’d live if you lived up to the age of 90! 32, 850 days to live! He said when he heard it, it struck him (as it struck me) because he thought he had more days of life expectancy. It’s a lot fewer days than he thought. He then stated that the late great Steve Jobs said that facing his own mortality every day, while looking in the mirror was motivational to him. Well, in my opinion, Mr. Jobs wasn’t lying.
So, you’d take your current age, let’s say you’re 30, multiply this by 365 days. This would equate to 10, 950 days. On your 30th birthday, you would have lived 10,950 days.
Subtract 10,950 days from 32,850 days, and you have the difference of 21,900. Do you see that number? You have 21,900 days left before you reach the age of 90!
After watching that program, I thought about my biological father and his age. He didn’t make it to 90 years of age. So the next question I asked myself was:
What is the average life expectancy of an American male?
Do you know what I found? It was far from 90. The average life expectancy of men and women in this country is 78! How many days is that? It is 28,470 days! Let me say that again:
78 yrs of age=28,470 days
This is the reality. Not 90. So now, if you were turning 30 years of age today, you’d have
17,520 days left
Now do you understand what Steve Jobs was talking about? This is the average in this country. And to be honest, in the last 20 years of me living in the DMV area, I’ve found that most people pass away between 68-70!
Here’s another kicker, do you know that usually, if a person retires from the Government or the Military and they do nothing after their retirement, they have a life expectancy of 5 years after retirement? I remember reading this decades ago! Being in my 20’s, I couldn’t believe it. But as I’ve worked in the government, I’ve literally seen people pass away in under five years, if they do nothing after retirement! But I digress.
Now of course you can extend your life to 80, 90, and even 100 years old! But you would have to make some lifestyle changes! Give up the fried foods, stop smoking, drug use, heavy alcohol drinking, go organic, go more plant-based, exercise and use herbs! Also, some of the risky activities that you are probably doing can cut your life expectancy short also!
We will discuss different types of ways to extend your life in future articles! But let’s stay on topic. The average life expectancy is 78 years of age (28,470 days)!
So again, if you just turned 30 today, you’ve burnt through 10,950 of those days and you have 17,520 days left on average!
If you don’t want to waste those 17,520 days, then from here on out, you have to make every day count. Why? Because time stops for no man! And how can we make those 17,520 days (the days left for a 30-year-old) count? We have to set goals and work towards the fulfillment of those goals.
So if you’ve just turned 20, you’ve burnt through 7300 days of your life. On average, you have 21,170 days left. Again if you are 30 years of age, you’ve burnt through 10,950 days of your life. On average, you have 17,520 days left. If you are 40 years of age, you’ve lived 14,600 days of life. On average you have 13,870 days left. If you are 50, you have lived 18,250 days of life. On average you have 10,220 days left. If you are 60 years of age, you’ve burnt through 21,900 days of living. On average, you have 6,570 days of living left. Now that’s a somber thought. What do you plan to do with the rest of your days?
Setting Goals
Do you want to be in the same place that you are now, a year from now? If the answer is no, then I suggest that if you haven’t done this yet, I think you need to sit down and write down some goals for 2022.
I’ve been messing around with goals for decades. Being around successful and wealthy people, you just learn these things. And through the years, I’ve learned some things.
Before I go into how to write down your goals, I must say something. You can write down your yearly goals and hit them right on the money. But you may find that at the end of the day, you’ll feel empty unless your goals are aligned with your inner compass. And your inner compass is comprised of several components, but the two major things are:
- Your Purpose in Life
- Your Roles
If you haven’t figured out your purpose in life or even understood the significance of this concept, then I suggest that you read my book, Secrets of Manhood #6: A Man Doesn’t Begin To Live Until He’s Found His purpose. What’s Your Purpose?
As far as Roles, we’ll discuss that at another time in a later article.
But I digress. If you don’t want to feel as if you wasted another year, a year from now, then I suggest that you think about creating some goals to accomplish during this 2022 calendar year.
Sidenote: I’m just as guilty of this as you probably are. Begin writing your goals for the next year by fall. In December at the latest! When January 1st comes, we should be hitting the ground running!
This article was inspired by the great author and speaker Brain Tracey. I recently saw a video of him on Instagram discussing goals. I’ve placed the video here for you. I then went on Youtube to watch other lectures that he made on goals. Here they are:
Note: I tweaked the recipe to setting goals. I have more to teach on goals. But this is a start.
Steps to Writing Your Goals
1)Take out a sheet of lined paper.
2)Place on the top of the sheet 2022 Goals.
3)Write down ten goals that you’d wish to accomplish this year. (Make sure that your statements are brief, clear and concise. One sentence if possible, a couple if necessary. No paragraphs!)
4)Write them down in present tense (i.e.: I earn, I achieve, I win, I weigh, I drive…such and such a car, etc.), or in a form of gratitude (“I’m so thankful and grateful for…” When you do this, you activate one of the spiritual laws called gratitude. The more you are sincerely grateful for, the more will be given to you. You also activate the spiritual law called faith. If you have faith, it will happen. But, also, “Faith without works is dead”. You must work also for it to happen. He will not give it to you, until you fulfill your part faith in Him to deliver and you working to get it!)
5)Set deadlines for each goal.
6)For every goal, write down a list of steps to accomplish each goal. (This is called a plan)
7)Organize the plan of each goal into a checklist.
8)Take action everyday.
9)Look at your ten goals and recite them to yourself at least three times a day. (Morning, noon and night. If you can’t do it three times a day, make sure you do it at least in the morning time! But it is also important to do it before going to sleep so that your mind can work on those goals as you sleep. You will tend to wake up with new solutions to achieve the mission of your goals) If you can memorize them that would be great. If you can write them out every morning that would be even better.
“If you do this, you’ll be rich.”-Brian Tracey
Conclusion
Don’t waste another 365 days of your life as you’ve wasted your previous years. Remember 28,470 days (78 years life expectancy)! How many days have you wasted? Today is the day to stop wasting time! Don’t beat yourself up, I wasn’t taught this and you probably weren’t taught this either. It’s ok. We can’t cry over spilled milk. Our parents didn’t know. We will teach our sons and daughters this information and we will change the destiny of our family! But we must start today with ourselves. Set your goals for the year! Let’s make it happen! We have a mission to fulfill. The mission is to not waste any more time. Let’s use the rest of the time that we have left- frugally! Again Happy New Year! Happy 2022!
Your Comrade, Moeh!
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