Heres why playing it safe is probably the single biggest gamble anyone can make with their life... Conventional wisdom says that you should spend most of your youthful time & energy focusing on the future. Getting that degree. Getting that job. Building assets. Saving for retirement. Making sacrifices to earn more money. De-prioritizing friendships in favor of finances (indirectly, subliminally - whatever). But conventional wisdom doesnt hold a candle to reality. What does reality have to say? Heres my interpretation: ---------------------------- You have a mystery expiration date. You will die. Could be 80 years from now. Could be 8 hours from now. You just have no idea. (One of my friends from college literally died in his sleep a few years ago. No apparent cause or reason... he was completely healthy. But the clock ran out, and that was it. His name was Steve.) So in that remaining span of time (from now until whenever the clock runs out), your BEST CHANCES to create lasting memories, and awesome experiences, are going to be when youre young. When your energy levels outweigh your responsibilities. And when you have less to lose by taking risks. When youre beautiful. When youre still an idealist... and not a pessimist. Especially because you have no idea where you really are on the time graph of your life. You could very well be in the final stretch... all the while assuming that youre only just past the starting line. So whats the SMART play? Whats the best thing you can do with your time while youre young? My advice would be to do everything right now, that you know you cant do later, when you have responsibilities, poor health, and so on. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom - which preaches exactly the opposite: That you should essentially trade your youth for a CHANCE to have freedom once youre old, loaded with responsibilities, and a shadow of your former self in terms of health, energy and appearance. I say thats too much of a gamble. In life, nothing is free. Your choices will generally always produce some sort of collateral regrets. I will happily trade having less money when Im older, for the memories of what Id done within the best years of my life. Im making an assumption... but I dont think that any amount of money could compensate or console the regret of wondering what could have been... simply because Id played it safe. Having the time of your life in your youth is well worth spending the final stretch in a slightly shittier nursing home. Id far rather have an abundance of memories, and the knowledge that Id done all I could have with what I had... than a nicer view out the window of my deathbed. So... perhaps the biggest risk in this life, is not taking any. ~ Chris
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 03:13:07 +0000
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