Are You Wasting Your Life?
Tags: Personal Growth, Mental Health, Productivity, Life Lessons, Success

Short Life Lessons:

Are You Wasting Your Life?

We spend most of our time working in dead-end jobs and numb ourselves in front of screens when we are home. Are we wasting our lives?

Made with Canva

My father once told me an anecdote that stuck with me ever since:

Two friends went out for a walk to the local graveyard. During their walk, they passed dozens of tombstones. One of the friends noticed the numbers on the tombstones and asked the other: “What’s going on with these numbers? They don’t add up!”

He points at the tombstone next to him. “It says 1902 to1975. And below it says, he lived 8 years.” Then he points at another tombstone. “ There it says, 1933–1990, but the note says that she lived only 5 years.”

The other friend replied: “Ah, yes. The note below determines the number of years this person really lived his or her life to the fullest.” The first friend started laughing and told the other: “When I die … please write on my tombstone: Born Dead.”

We all laughed at this joke back then, but I still think about this story all the time. Especially whenever I waste time with senseless things.

Whenever I binge-watch another season of another show on Netflix, I think of this story. Whenever I do a stupid and senseless job, I think of this story. Whenever I play another hour of another stupid mobile game, I think of this story.

Whenever I do anything really, I think to myself: “Does this add value to my life? Does this add numbers to my tombstone? Does this thing have a purpose? Am I going anywhere with it? Can I get it to the bank and cash out (figuratively and literally)?”

I admit this creates a sense of stress sometimes. I am not able to chill out and enjoy my free time after work at times. I often feel like I have to be more productive.

I feel like I have to create more, experience more, achieve more, and move my life-count further up before I go to bed again and the whole cycle repeats itself the next day. But when I finally do something valuable, it feels just so much more satisfying.

However, I frequently watch some of my friends, who still have the same soul-destroying jobs, still live with their parents, still play the same games and they just seem to stay frozen in time in general. They seem to be stuck in the comfort of their own lives, immune or unwilling to change.

For me, this sounds like pure horror but I can’t quite tell if they are happy or unhappy with their lives. They seem more chilled out than me at least. Are they moving their life-counter up by doing another stupid quest in World of Warcraft? I really can’t say. But I guess everyone has to decide for themselves what makes their counter go up.

“Does this add value to my life? Does this add numbers to my tombstone? Does this thing have purpose? Am I going anywhere with it? Can I get it to the bank and cash out (figuratively and literally)?”

Are you already adding numbers to your counter or are you still just wasting time? Think about what number would be written on your tombstone! Tell me in the comments. What are your guilty pleasures when it comes to wasting time? I guarantee you will think about this story the next time you watch another episode of “Dancing Stars.”