You Only Get So Many Mondays

“How many Mondays do you have left?” ~ Jodi Wellman

Since Halloween is this week, let’s start things off with a bang and take a little walk with the Grim Reaper as we wrap up our mega-series from the last two months on TIME.

Because if you haven’t figured it out already, the truth is, none of this was ever really just about how you’re spending your time.

It’s about how you’re spending your life.

Every hour we’ve talked about throughout this series - the hours you spend working, taking care of yourself, connecting with the people you love, checking things off your To-Do List, scrolling your phone, rushing from one thing to another, resting, playing, dreaming, or simply being present - is part of your life.

And unlike so many other resources, you can’t earn more time.

Which brings me to a book that feels like the perfect way to wrap up this series: You Only Die Once: How to Make It to the End with No Regrets by Jodi Wellman. (I highly recommend you read or listen to this book, she’s hysterical and brilliant. Get it here: https://amzn.to/4wSj4CA)

Yes, it’s a book about death. But it’s really a book about life.

One of the concepts woven throughout the book is memento mori which is Latin for “remember you must die.” I realize that may sound a little dark, but the purpose isn’t to dwell on death. Quite the opposite. Remembering that our time here is limited can be one of the most powerful reminders to stop putting off the life we want to live.

Remembering That Life Is Finite

One of my favorite ways Jodi makes this idea real is by asking us to think about how many Mondays we have left. An average lifetime gives us somewhere around 4,000 of them.

Four thousand Mondays… and the Grim Reaper is counting. So do the math. Depending on your age, you’ve already used quite a few...

Now before you decide this is the most depressing Masterful Mindset I’ve ever written, stay with me here! 😉

What if knowing you only have so many Mondays left didn’t make you afraid of how little time you have? What if instead, it made you more intentional about the time you do have?

Think about your Mondays. Do you wake up dreading the week ahead? Are you spending the majority of your days doing work you don’t enjoy, surrounded by people you don’t really want to be around, while continually telling yourself that someday you’ll make a change?

Or are you living in a way that makes you feel grateful to have another Monday, another day?

That takes us all the way back to where this series began: talking about how much of our lives we spend working and why it’s so important to find meaning, purpose, and hopefully even joy in the work we do.

But work is only one piece of a well-spent life.

Are You Fully Alive in the Life You’re Living?

Another concept from the book that really resonated with me is the idea that a fulfilling life needs both vitality and meaning. In other words, we need things that make us feel alive. Such as joy, energy, curiosity, fun, adventure. But we also need things that make our lives feel meaningful, like purpose, contribution, connection and love.

And trust me, if you want to feel fully alive, you need both in your life. 

You can have a very successful, productive, meaningful life and still forget to actually enjoy it. On the other hand, you can fill your life with fun and experiences but still find yourself wondering, is this all there is?

So, think about your own life. Where do you feel most alive right now? Where do you feel a sense of meaning and purpose? And where might you simply be going through the motions?

Those questions aren’t meant to make you feel bad about your life. They’re meant to help you become more aware of how you’re living it.

Because awareness creates choice. And choice creates change.

Once you become aware that you’re spending your limited time in a way that doesn’t feel right anymore, you have the opportunity to choose differently.

Don’t Wait for a Wake-Up Call

Unfortunately, it often takes something big to remind us how precious our time really is.

A health scare. Losing someone we love. A relationship ending. A child leaving home. A milestone birthday. A career change. Something happens that suddenly makes us realize, WOW… life is moving quickly.

And for a while, we pay attention.

We hug people tighter. We say what we’ve been meaning to say. We stop sweating the small stuff. We think about the trip we’ve always wanted to take or the dream we’ve continually put off. We promise ourselves we’re going to live differently.

But eventually, everyday life starts creeping back in. We get busy. Our old routines return. And before we know it, we’re back on autopilot.

That’s really the gift of memento mori. It’s not meant to make us afraid of dying. It’s meant to remind us to start living right now, in this moment, before we need some big wake-up call to make us realize how precious our time really is.

You don’t need something terrible to happen before you decide to live more intentionally.

You can make that choice today.

What Might You Regret?

Here’s where I want you to be courageous enough to ask yourself a harder question.

If the Grim Reaper really did come knocking much sooner than you’d hoped, what would you regret?

Would you regret working so much? Not taking better care of your health? Not spending more time with someone you love? Not repairing a relationship?

Would you wish you’d taken the trip? Started the business? Written the book? Changed careers? Learned something new? Taken the risk you kept telling yourself you’d take someday?

Or maybe your regrets would be much simpler.

Maybe you’d wish you had worried less and played more. Been more present. Said I love you more often. Spent less time trying to prove yourself and more time simply enjoying being yourself.

Don’t use those potential regrets to beat yourself up about the past. That’s not the point. You can’t change how you’ve already spent your time.

But you can let that awareness guide how you spend what’s left.

Your Life Is Happening Now

That’s really what I hope you’ll take away from everything we’ve explored over these past two months.

Your life isn’t something that’s going to begin when work slows down, when the kids are older, when you have more money, when you finally get everything on your To-Do List done, or when you have more time.

This is your time. Your life is happening right now.

It’s happening in how you start your mornings. It’s happening in the work you choose to do and the people you choose to do it with. It’s happening whether you’re fully present or constantly distracted. It’s happening whether you take care of your body, make time for the people you love, allow yourself to rest, pursue things that matter to you, and create room for joy.

All those seemingly little choices about how you spend your minutes and hours eventually add up to something much bigger.

They become your life.

How Will You Spend Your Days?

So, as we close this series, I’m not going to give you another productivity strategy. Instead, I want to leave you with a few things to reflect on.

What deserves more of your time? What deserves less? What have you been putting off for someday? What makes you feel most alive? Who deserves more of your presence?

And if you knew you had far fewer days left than you’d like to imagine, what would you change about the way you’re living this one?

You don’t have to quit your job, sell everything you own, or completely reinvent your life tomorrow. Remember, lasting transformation rarely comes from changing everything at once. More often, it’s the small, intentional choices we make consistently that begin to change our lives.

So start there.

Make the call. Take the walk. Schedule the trip. Protect the time. Take care of your health. Do work that matters. Put down the phone. Say what needs to be said. Try the thing you’ve been afraid to try. And spend more time being fully present with the people you love.

Maybe this Halloween, instead of running away from the Grim Reaper, let him give you a little reminder:

Your time here is limited.

That’s not something to fear. It’s a reason to live.

So make your days count. Make your choices count. Make the time you have with the people you love count.

And when you eventually do reach the end, my hope is that you can look back with gratitude rather than regret, knowing you didn’t waste your time, instead…

You spent it living your best true life.

Do you want knowledge and wisdom but don't want to spend the time it takes to read a whole book? Check out the Philosopher's Notes on whatever book you have been wanting to read by following this Link.