700,000 Hours: The Only Thing Life Has Given Us. Use Them Wisely.

Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash

How long is your life in hours?

Let’s run some numbers. One year of your life has 365 * 24 hours, so 8,760 hours.

The average life expectancy for a German male is roughly 80 years. Hence, 80 * 8,760 hours equals the duration of my life: 700,800 hours.

Now, I’ve already lived for a few years, 26 to be exact. So I have 54 years left, or roughly 475,000 hours. That’s actually quite frightening. I feel very young, but the reality of having lived for 225,000 hours already strikes me a bit.

But that’s not all. Let’s assume I sleep for 8 hours a day (or should, at least — wishful thinking) and spend 2 hours a day on maintenance (showering, brushing teeth, eating, drinking, …), then there’s only 275,000 hours of time awake and freely available left.

Is that a lot? I have no idea. I simply cannot relate to such a large number in the context of hours. There’s only one thing I know: once the current hour is gone, it’ll never come back. Ever.

Time is our most valuable resource, nevertheless we disrespect it in an almost frivolous manner. How often does the day just pass by without really having lived mindfully, going to bed without a sense of fulfillment? To me, that still happens a lot. Tic Tac. Another day gone. And…