When I read this article by Tim Urban, I was intruged by how he put our lives into perspective with what he calls a Life Calendar. It lays out every year, month or week you’d have in your lifetime. Turns out, our lives are entirely measurable and a lot shorter than we think.
For instance, assuming you’re 30 years old and you’re really lucky to have to live a healthy 90-year life. You’d only have around 60 winters left, only see the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup 15 times more, and you would’ve already spent 90-95% of your in-person time with your parents. (he explains more here)
When we realise how finite our life is, a sense of urgency emerges. You’d want to do as many meaningful things as possible, and try to minimise time “wasted”. I admit, it’s hard to strike a balance between focused work and instant gratification. At times I feel guilty about “wasting” my time on certain things. But we all learn and improve bit by bit.
Here’s my life so far:
- 1990s: 👶 Grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, with my wonderful brother Luke
- 1997: 🏠 Family moved back to Hong Kong, attended local primary and secondary schools
- 2003: 😷 The SARS epidemic
- 2006: 🎻 ABRSM Certificate for Violin Solo, Grade 8
- 2008: 📜 Completed the HKCEE
- 2008: 🏠 Moved back to Adelaide
- 2009: 🚗 First car: Suzuki Swift manual
- 2009: 🎹 ABRSM Certificate for Piano Solo, Grade 8
- 2009: 📜 Completed SACE
- 2010: 🏠 Moved to Melbourne for uni
- 2012: 🇯🇵 Exchange program at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
- 2012: 🎓 Graduated from the Bachelor of Biomedicine (UniMelb)
- 2013: 🏠 Moved back to Hong Kong
- 2013: 👨🔬 Research Assistant at the School of Public Health, HKU
- 2013: 📚 Started Med School
- 2014: 🎼 ABRSM Certificate for Music Theory, Grade 8
- 2018: ⛪️ Started attending The Vine Church
- 2018: 🎓 Graduated from MBBS (HKUMed)
- 2018: 👨⚕ 1 year of internship training
- 2019: 🔪 Started training as a surgeon
- 2019: 🎶 ABRSM Certificate for Singing, Grade 8
- 2020: 😷 The COVID-19 pandemic
I will update this list along the way. Do check back every once in a while.
Read more:
- Your Life in Weeks by Tim Urban
- The Tail End by Tim Urban
