Kumar's Blog

The Science on living longer continues to progress, pushing our lifespans further up. 

The secrets to a healthier lifestyle that leads to living longer is accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. 

Apart from the numerical lifespan, there is the perception of a longer life. 

Our perception of the time we spend varies depending on the richness of the memories we create.

A succession of similar activities and experiences will lead to a compression of our memories, giving us a perception of lesser time spent. 

While novel activities and experiences will lead to a richer set of memories, expanding our perception of time spent. 

This is why we remember in great detail everything that we did during our vacation a year ago, while we can't distinctly differentiate one day from another from the past month. 

While we can live longer through a healthier lifestyle, we can live longer still by creating richer memories of the things we do.

(Hat-tip to David Eagleman)

Doing the same thing that we've been doing to get here doesn't take us further forward.

But it does keep us here.

And doing something different brings with it the uncertainty of "what if it doesn't work?"

There are no guarantees in life.

If we are happy with the way things are, then we can be risk averse and continue to do the same thing.

However, if we are hoping that somehow magically there will come a time in the near future when we will end up going further forward without changing what we are doing, then we'll continue to hope.

To move forward, we must be ready to tumble and fall and drop from where we are.

That's the inherent risk of our actions not working out as we want.

It is not the knowledge that we must do something different to move forward that holds us back. It is the fear of losing what we already have, the fear of upsetting the status quo.

Between how approach our workout and how we approach everything else.

Between how we approach a game of football and how we approach everything else.

Between how we approach our Monday morning and how we approach everything else.

And so on.

Happy lives are ones where there aren't these boundaries, and we approach everything that we do and experience with the same enthusiasm.

Doing so means we don't hold onto any one thing because the next thing is just as important / exciting / fun / boring as the previous one. 

And there is so much more of it to come.

Often, when we are stuck, or are struggling to find a way forward, all we need is to see the situation from a new perspective. And the solution becomes apparent.

The best coaches, mentors and teachers are the ones who know precisely what perspective will help the other person in their current situation and effectively guide them to take that perspective. 

This is a skill that comes only with experience.

If we come across a fork on the road, and we have nowhere specific to go, does it matter which road we take?

If we have a million podcasts to choose from, but we don't know what we want to listen to, does it matter which one we choose?

Choices matter only when we want something specific. With that lens, there are right choices and wrong choices; good choices and bad choices.

But when we don't want something specific, we can make any choice and experience what it has to bring us.

We spend a lot of time weighing our choices and not enough time deciding what we want.