This post was originally published on Wait But Why.
This is what a long human life looks like in years:
And here’s a human life in months:
But today, we’re going to look at a human life in weeks:
Each row of weeks makes up one year. That’s how many weeks it takes to turn a newborn into a 90-year-old. It kind of feels like our lives are made up of a countless number of weeks. But there they are — fully countable — staring you in the face.
Before we discuss things further, let’s look at how a typical American spends their weeks:
There are some other interesting ways to use the weeks chart, too:
"Current week" as of May 2014.
But how about your weeks?
Sometimes life seems really short, and other times it seems impossibly long. But this chart helps to emphasize that it’s most certainly finite. Those are your weeks, and they’re all you’ve got.
Given that fact, the only appropriate word to describe your weeks is precious. There are trillions upon trillions of weeks in eternity, and those are your tiny handful.
Going with the “precious” theme, let’s imagine that each of your weeks is a small gem, like a 2 mm, .05-carat diamond.
Here’s one:
If you multiply the volume of a .05-carat diamond by the number of weeks in 90 years (4,680), it adds up to just under a tablespoon.
Looking at this spoon of diamonds, there’s one very clear question to ask: “Are you making the most of your weeks?”
In thinking about my own weeks and how I tend to use them, I decided that there are two good ways to use a diamond:
1) Enjoying the diamond.
2) Building something to make your future diamonds or the diamonds of others more enjoyable.
In other words, you have this small spoonful of diamonds and you really want to create a life in which they’re making you happy.
And if a diamond is not making you happy, it should only be because you’re using it to make other diamonds go down better — either your own in the future or those of others. In the ideal situation, you’re well-balanced between #1 and #2 and you’re often able to accomplish both simultaneously (like those times when you love your job).
Of course, if a diamond is enjoyable but by enjoying it you’re screwing your future diamonds (an Instant Gratification Monkey specialty), that’s not so good. Likewise, if you’re using diamond after diamond to build something for your future but it’s not making you happy and seems like a long-term thing with no end in sight, that’s not great either.
The worst possible way to use a diamond is by accomplishing neither #1 nor #2 above. Sometimes “neither” happens when you’re in either the wrong career or the wrong relationship, and it’s often a symptom of either a shortage of courage, self-discipline, or creativity. Sometimes “neither” happens because of a debilitating problem.
We’ve all had "Neither Weeks" and they don’t feel good.
When a long string of Neither Weeks happens, you become depressed, frustrated, hopeless, and a bunch of other upsetting adjectives. But it’s inevitable to have Neither Weeks, and sometimes they’re important — it’s often a really bad Neither Week that leads you to a life-changing epiphany.
