The Average Person Lives 27,375 Days. Make Each of Them Count.

That is the average lifespan in the United States today: 27,375 days.  If you are typical, that is what was deposited in your “time bank” when you were born.  Every day, whether or not you want to, you make a withdrawal of 1 day.  When the days run out, you die.  Game over.

To find out how much time you have left if you are an average man or woman, take your age and multiply it by 365.  Then, subtract it from 27,375 days.  For example, if you are 25 years old, you have 18,250 days to live (27,375 days – 9,125 (because 365 x 25 = 9,125)).  If you are 50 and average, you have 9,125 days left to live.  If you are 65, you have 3,650 days left to live.

The average person lives 27,375 days. Make each one count.  Spend part of the year fishing in Canada or sailing in the Caribbean.  Learn to cook or paint.  Don’t just sit in your office or at home, mindlessly collecting pieces of paper called money so you can pay for a car that needs to be replaced every few years or a house that won’t do you any good when you are gone!

Obviously, everyone is different and your habits can add to, or take away from, your mortality bank.  Still, this is a blunt tool that can be tremendously useful.  After all, Steve Jobs said in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University that one of the secrets to his success was reminding himself every day that he was going to die.  Only a few years later, he did just that.  He had fewer days than most people, passing away at 56 years old, yet accomplished more than almost anyone who has ever lived.

You will die.  Make sure your life means something.  Calculate how many days are left in your “typical” mortality bank and do your absolute best to make every one of them count.  Look around you.  If you don’t like how you are spending today, change it.  Don’t spend your life stuck somewhere you don’t love, doing something about which you aren’t passionate, surrounded by people you can barely tolerate.  This isn’t a dress rehearsal, as the old saying goes.  Make it count.

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