Covidopia: 3 Good Things to Emerge From This Crap
2020 is gone, but its residue is all over us
While we are all drenched in the negative year called 2020, which is bleeding into 2021, it’s possible to extract some profound realizations from this awful collective experience.
Here’s to your personal enlightenment and upgraded habits, the gifts of Covidopia:
1. Knowing the Intrinsic Value of Your Time
The way you spend your time came into sharp focus this past 16 months.
Here’s an exercise I learned from a wise person on a flight from Hanoi to Beijing in 2012.
Calculate the months to the end of your life. That’s right. Calculate your estimated age at death and count the months you have to live your life.
Let’s say you’re 45 years old and you’re betting on living 80 years, barring your unexpected fatality. That’s 35 years or 420 months or about 12,784 days, including leap years.
Seems like plenty.
But, if you consider the number on the first day of each month as it counts down, that 420 months turns into 408 in just one year. Since March 2020 (remember that month?) it has come down from 420 to 405 months. By the end of 2021 you’ll be in the high 300’s.