Life in 24 Hours

This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.

There are basically three valuable items in life: Money, Love and Time. Money can buy almost everything, from high-quality medical services (that is, health) and ways to relieve pain (because life is also suffering), to sexual availability and pleasure, and ending with everything you can possibly imagine. Love has a category of its own, as it cannot be bought and has a different quality. However, some people can live very well without Love, as Power can replace it completely and act as Love for… well… the entire life. Love is valued by a small minority of people and constitutes a personal choice rather than a necessity; most of us can do without it (while being heartless and playing power games). Finally, Time is the other big valuable item; our lives are finite and plagued by disease and old age… and no money can buy time. We can do well without Love, but we can’t do well with little or no Money… and we can’t do anything at all without Time…

People on the internet enjoy talking a lot about ways to make money online. It’s an obsession. Some people speak about finding love… but it is generally about finding romance or sex. Few people speak about making the most of your remaining time… about living your life well and in a fulfilling manner. Actually, pretty much everyone on the internet fights for your attention by all possible means; they do fight to take as much time as possible from you, as this converts to money for them from advertising, affiliate links, click baits and so on. They manage to convert YOUR Time into THEIR Money, so if you seek ways to get more Time, the internet is the last place to search…

In this article I’m going to propose you a practical exercise. I did the exercise myself a couple of times in the past, so I know how it feels. It’s about time and finding time. And it is tough, so you can stop here if you are risk-adverse or you don’t want to be challenged excessively or offended in any way. It’s OK to stop!

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I know that most of you have some future plans. Or, at least, you have some desires, some goals, some wishes. Some of them are short-term plans, some of them are medium and long-term plans. I would kindly ask you to take a piece of paper and write some of them. Or, you can think about a couple of them if you’re not in the mood to write. What is important is to have these goals in your mind and also organize them according to their estimated time of achievement. For instance, going shopping is likely to be a short-time goal, while passing an exam or getting a professional promotion are likely to be long-time goals. Take some minutes to ponder on all these; it is important to take this time. Then, continue to read the rest of the article. Remember that you can properly do this practical exercise only once in your life: do not read beyond this point without reflecting on your short and long term goals, as you will ruin the exercise if you fast-forward to the next paragraph…

Okay… so by now you have some sort of idea about your goals and when you want to accomplish them… I can congratulate you for your diligence in making this list (if you made one) and I can also congratulate you for the power of your imagination and also for your ability to exercise control over your life and schedule it. However… you made this list of goals starting from a wrong premise: you assumed that you still have time…

Are you sure you still have this time? Are you sure that you will survive enough so as to wrestle with the medium or long-term plans? Can you even be sure that you can fulfill even the short-term plans? Do you know exactly the moment of your death? Or… did you ever took into consideration that you will die one day…?

Yes, there is a fault in your planning, an error of judgement, a variable that you unconsciously overlooked: it is impossible to control how much time you still have. Most – if not all people – do make this error; we are built in such a way so as to assume that our life will continue endlessly, that there is not such a thing called death. We are built this way, with this blind-spot, so as not to become depressed and disillusioned. Because yes, it’s exactly this: we are under the spell of an illusion – the illusion of immortality – or under the impression that we are in some sort of contract with the divine/nature/ourselves that stipulates a very long life and guarantees that death is still a long way to go…

Now, since we don’t know how much time we still have – you could be within moments from death – it appears wise to prioritize our goals, to choose from them what matters most to you and discard what is garbage. And here comes the second part of the exercise: it’s time to limit your time… like… to drastically limit it…

I would like to invite you to consider the following: you are left with only 24 hours to live from the moment you’re reading this article and this very line. Take a look at the clock and understand that in a day’s time your physical existence will end. In other words, tomorrow by this time you will give your last breath. More precisely, you will die. It won’t be painful (don’t think about an agony) and your remaining 24 hours will be spent in good health. But you will die – with absolute certitude – tomorrow by this time. Everything… will just… stop. Your life has just shrunk to 24 hours and no more. There is no going back, you won’t be resurrected, it’s final and definitive. Period.

You are now in a completely new situation: you still have money and perhaps love, but you’re running out of time. No matter how much money you have and no matter how intense love is, the time you’re left with is 23 hours and 59 minutes – because a minute has just passed between the moment you read the above paragraph and the moment you’re reading this line. The clock is ticking! YOUR clock is ticking! Death is no longer a vague, abstract or remote event; it is very certain. The time of your life is diminishing moment by moment and you cannot convert money or love into time.

So, what are you going to do now?!

And what are you going to do with your objectives… goals… future plans…?!

Well… it’s time to revisit them and see what you can still do within these last hours!

You are now in the middle of what I call the “life in 24 hours” exercise and I strongly advise you to take this seriously, especially since you might actually have less than 24 hours to live (who knows, really?!).

So, turn that piece of paper or take another paper and write now – knowing that you’re left with less than one day to live – what are your “newly updated” goals! What do you want to do during this time? Whom do you want to see or call or talk to? Is any professional goal still standing as a goal? Does your career matter? Does your desire for control still matter? Perhaps you had some desires that you postponed… think again now if you still have time for them! You are not going to make it until tomorrow so see now what you can still do in the time that you still have!…

What are those things that you still love to do? Now it’s the last chance to do them, IF it’s still possible!

What are those things that you wanted to say to others or to the other one? Now you can say them knowing that there is no tomorrow!

Are you afraid? Well… in less than 24 hours you will be dead; you cannot die twice!

Are you ashamed? Feel guilty? Does it matter? Does it matter anymore? Do you still care? Do the other(s) care? Did the other(s) really cared?

How are you going to dress for this occasion – the last day of your life?

Are you going to sleep during the last hours of your life?

Do make some sort of planning if you have several things to do; there is little time left!

Where are you going to be during your last hour? With whom? Understand that you might not be able to find a plane or the proper connections or buy the necessary tickets if you’re far away, on the other side of the world! Do think about the very real moment of now – where you are, what you do, where you’ve been caught by reading my article. If, for instance, you are far away from your loved ones, can you explain why is that?!

What are your last words going to be? What will you say for the last time in this life? Is it going to be a statement about what? Will you cry? Will you swear? Will you roar? What will be your last thought? What will be your last emotion, your last feeling? What will be your last sensation? What will you see for the last time? What will you hear for the last time?

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The above exercise helps you stay connected with yourself throughout life. It helps you live each day “as if it would be your last one”. In this case, IT IS the last one, there is not “as if”, and this gives to this exercise – done properly – a lot of existential weight. Everybody performing the “life in 24 hours” exercise is changed, as it’s a direct path to discover what really matters in life and what are the real goals one should pursue in their life. At the same time, the exercise is designed to strengthen one’s mind, as it is protective in life-or-death situations, when one risks being submerged by emotions originating in one’s unlived life. The conclusions taken from this exercise – the goals that have been chosen for the last 24 hours – do remain in one’s memory. They are different from person to person, so the exercise is individual and rather private. It often dawns on the one doing it that almost everything the person lives is either an illusion or an outright lie. It is also true that few people choose to follow the conclusions of this exercise and change their life by altering the priorities given to their goals or modifying their goals altogether. Most (likely, all) of those who read this article will continue their life as if nothing happened.

Right now your “life in 24 hours” is fully active. You can choose to pretend that you really have less than 24 hours to live, meditate about your goals, and see what happens and what you discover about you during this limited time. Or you can choose to exit the exercise… but you will never be able to return to it in the same way. If you choose to continue, your inner-mind will likely give you many insights to ponder on. And perhaps you’ll change some things… or give up others…

Remember: your life is always ending… moment by moment…