You have more time than you think

"I'd like to do it, but at my age, I just don't have time to start something new." I hear variations on this theme all the time. Why? It's usually confusion between "time" and "age".

If you are 35 now and you began "adult life" (getting a job and earning your own money, for example) at 25 and you think you will die 60 years later at 85, then you will have 60 years of adult life and you have only lived 10 of them. If you're 55, you're only half-way!

Do this with your own age. It may give you a new perspective on how much "time" you have left. And remember, every day, medical scientists work to find new ways to keep us alive. You may live to 105 easily, even if you doubt that now.

In 1998, my mother passed away at 91. In 1952, when she was 45 years old, she would have laughed if you told her she would live to be 91. She expected to die by her early 70's like most women of that period. She was wrong. Her last fifteen years were not happy. By the time she died, her long life span had been a cruel and heartless master.

The mistake of thinking in terms of total years lived instead of adult years is a very common mistake and can give you the wrong perspective. The mistake of assuming that the current average life span will not change in your lifetime is another mistake. Are you making these mistakes? Stop.

You have a lot more time than you think. What you do with this time is the important question.