“You’ll never get this chance again. Do everything you want to do with the people you want to do it with.”
This is the advice I give to every rising senior in their final year before entering the real world.
Poof, their 4 years as a college student are gone in the blink of an eye. That experience can only be lived once and cannot be replicated again.
We don’t realize what we have until it’s gone. This is true for our health, our relationships, and the chapters of our lives.
Each chapter of our life is distinct and limited in time. Once the chapter ends, it’s closed forever.
In this post, we are going to talk about taking a proactive approach to live each chapter of our lives so we can have the richest story with the people we care about, experiences we want to have, and dreams we want to achieve.
Your Life Divided Into Chapters
Think of your life as a book, with each chapter representing different phases of your life. Since our valuable time flows in one direction, you cannot go back to past versions of yourself.
While everyone’s life story follows a similar order (childhood, early adulthood, later adulthood, old age, and death), within each major chapter there are individual pages that represent fleeting periods in your life. It could be those years in high school or college, during your first relationship, working your first job, raising your first newborn, and so on.
Since you will travel through several different periods in your life, some longer than others, you want to fully experience each of them before they end. Don’t make the mistake of assuming they will last forever because one day it’ll be too late.
We have to recognize that we are not getting any younger and the people around us are also growing older. This is something we often forget, and years pass before we give it a second thought. At some point, these people, the dreams you have, and the opportunities in front of you in this chapter of your life can disappear, forever.
Don’t sweat the small things in the grand scheme of your life. They are the periods on a page, forgotten as soon as the next page starts. Focus on truly important people, experiences, memories, and dreams in each chapter of your life.
Time With Our Parents
Let’s talk about spending time with our parents.
In the first chapter of your life, while you lived at home, you probably saw your parents every single day for hours at a time.
Fast forward to a couple of chapters later once you are living on your own, with a growing career or business, or maybe a family, you might be lucky to see your parents once a month.
If both of your parents are alive and healthy, you’re already lucky to be able to spend time with them. If they are in their 60s or older, that gives you less than 20 years of opportunity to see them based on average life expectancy in the US.
If you see them 12 days a year (once a month), that’s at most 240 more times you’ll ever see your parents again…
Despite having many more decades to live, you are nearing the end of the chapter for some of the most important people in your life.
Have you ever thought about that reality? We don’t realize these things until they are put into perspective.
There Is A Last Time For Everything
The same thing happens across the board in your life with other important people. They are each living out their own life stories and might someday disappear from your life without you knowing when.
“At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it.”
The Sandlot
Your college friends that you used to spend 7 days a week with, every hour after class, are now all grown up and live around the world. The chances of getting everyone back together are incredibly rare and might never happen again once graduation is over.
Your children who used to spend every single waking hour with you are now grown up as young adults with their own lives. The chances they will have free time (or if they want to spend that free time) with you are much more rare once they leave the house.
If you still have the luxury to spend time with these people, it may be hard to imagine that being taken away. But make no mistake, none of it will last forever. There’s a last time for everything and you might not even know when that last time will be.
While you still can, make the most of every opportunity you have to enjoy time with the important people in your life. Be intentional with spending your limited time. The pages turn quickly and each chapter will end sooner than you think.
How Will You Remember Your Life Story?
At the end of everyone’s book, the story always ends the same. What you can change is how well you’ve lived each chapter to create a fulfilling life story you can look back on with joy. Live a life that you’ll remember.
Realizing this, look at the current chapter you’re living right now. Focus not only on the people but also the experiences and dreams you can only accomplish in this period of your life. You will probably never be as healthy as you are today with fewer responsibilities and people to take care of.
Have a list of things you want to accomplish in this current chapter of your life and go after them.
If you want to travel the world, do it. If you want to start a family, do it. If you want to run your own business, do it. The hardest part is just getting started.
Once you get going you will naturally figure out ways around roadblocks that pop up, and your persistence will get you to the finish line.
If you have negative things in your life weighing you down, figure out a way to get rid of them then focus on adding more good things.
Tolerating these bad things will never make you happy and deep down you know this. You want to live a rich life, not a tolerable life.
Don’t drift through each chapter of your life then look back at the end of your life story with deep regret because you never bet on yourself.
Lastly, make time for the important people in this chapter of your life, because it will end sooner than you think.
“The years may seem long but life is short.”
The Rich Henry
Eventually, your life story will come to an end and you’ll savor the memories made knowing you lived each chapter of your life to the fullest.
That reminds me. Have you called your parents recently?