A Life In Boxes

The only certainty that we will each encounter is the passage of time.

Ecclesiastes wrote in the Bible (Ecclesiastes Chapter 3):

1. To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2. time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3. time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4. time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5. time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6. time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7. time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8. time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

When we were gangling teenagers, life was so ahead of us. Time, death, growing old, these were never in our minds.

The first piece of bad news I had on death was when my great-grandmother passed away. Then a classmate who was studying medicine at the University passed away due to cancer. Then another classmate, when the car he was in, plunged downwards from the multistorey car park at the then Cathay Building car park. Many were to come subsequently as well. But there were joyful moments as well, like the birth of my cousins’ children.

As an exercise, take a look at the chart above and cross out the number of diamonds representing each year your parents have lived. The remaining diamonds represent the number of years remaining.

Do it for yourself too. And do it every year. Below is another depiction, in terms of weeks. Here, each row represents one year.

Life is precious. Life is fragile. Each day is a diamond. What would you like your lifetime to be like?

Whatever your age, I would urge you to start planning now. It is never too early to plan. For some of you, college beckons. For some of you, retirement beckons. As a sidenote and a variation, you can plot it in terms of the number of rugby matches you want to watch too, just to make it interesting. But be sure you are fit to watch it in the stadium, and not from the bed.

7 steps for you:

1. Plan ahead

2. Discover your Life Score & your loved ones’

3. Discover your passion - don’t think too hard, just go out and try

4. Mark out what you want to achieve and by when

5. Don’t forget to put in the little moments for example, that special romantic date

6. Put all these down in the circles - in a year dot and also weekly and daily

7. Put the dots where you can see it, to remind yourself daily, but also so that you can adjust and reset your sails as you go along.

Do share with us how this has helped you down the road.