How Many Days Left In Your Life?

Quick, without calculating -- presuming you'll live to a ripe old age, how many days do you think you have left in your life? What was your guess? Most people shrug and say, "A million."

Sad news for you: A million days is about 2740 years. No matter what kind of medical advances are around the corner, I don't think we're going to be seeing you in two millenia. Sorry.

Here's the harsh reality. Even if you live to be 100, you've only got 36,500 days in your entire life -- maybe a couple dozen more if you count leap years. My friends, that's thirty-six thousand. Total. It gets worse -- the odds of you living to 100 are pretty slim. More likely you'll hang around until you're 80 or 90 at most. Already you're down to about 30,000. If you make it only to the Biblical three score and ten, that's closer to 25,000.

If you're reading this, you've probably already used up at least a quarter to a half of those days, if not more. Which means you're fortunate if you've got another 10,000 to 15,000 days ahead of you, max. Unless you're one of those insects whose lifespan is only one day, suddenly ten thousand days doesn't seem like so much, does it?

Of course, a third of that time is spent asleep -- which means you may only have the equivalent of 6,600 "waking" days to look forward to. If you're lucky! And, a sad-but-truism: the older you get, the faster those days whiz by. So get going! Have a nice day -- while you still have a few left to enjoy.