We’ve all heard the saying “live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse”, mostly pertaining to young adventurous people who died young but lived more in their time than many others. I often ask myself whether or not our ever growing life expectancy actually means that we are living happier lives overall or living boring lives for longer. I usually think to myself that I don’t want to live past 90 if it means I am old and frail but people often remind me that I won’t feel that way when I am 89. No human by nature wants to die, but I wonder what way of living maximizes happiness.
If we look at happiness as a thing we create at X amount per year, most would think those that live to 100 would have much more happiness than someone who lives to 50, but this idea can be misleading or flat out wrong. If we take extreme polarized examples like someone who is imprisoned for 80 years of their life, but lives to 100 probably has lead a far less happy life than someone in their 40s. On the other side, someone like a celebrity or has everything they could ever ask for who dies at 40 might have lived a more fulfilling life than people who work a boring day to day job and live to 100. Obviously these are complete polar opposites, but as an example they show how life expectancy can be deceiving.
I also believe that because there is a high life expectancy, many of us say we will end up doing something someday because we have so much perceived time left, but never get around to it. Nurses often say that what people regret on their deathbed most is not taking the chances and doing the things with their life that they most wanted to. At the same time someone who follows their dreams and lives everyday doing what they love might experience a joy that we will never know. I believe many are trapped into a system, get a degree, a job, a car, married, house, family, ect. And die of old age looking back at the empire they created, because they believe this is the way to a happy life.
However, this idea is an illusion most likely pushed by our society to conform to a social norm of what success looks like. We all want to be the rulers of our own domains, but often for purposes that are more for purely validation from others. We can buy nice things, live a long life and have a garage filled with things, but this won’t bring us the happiness we are all searching for. In the words of Dean Martin
You may be king, you may possess the world and it's gold
But gold won't bring you happiness when you're growing old
The world still is the same, you never change it
It takes people to lose their youth and a quick realization that time is the most precious commodity to actually change their lives around for the better. I believe this is why we see as many mid-life crisis as we do with woman and men in their 50s, the turning point of age. Most who are risk adverse avoid taking the chances and doing the adventurous things at a young age because they diverge from a plan they already have set in their mind and never experience what could have been. I slowly am starting to see myself fall into this category and find myself making tough decisions for a future life I have no idea that ill be alive to enjoy.
I want to just turn on a switch that would make me be as adventurous, as say Heidi on Steemit, but the rational part of me is holding me back. I see student loans, debt, investment for my future as issues that I can’t avoid. If simply changing my attitude was simple I would do it, but a gear inside me refuses to turn. I see what has happened to many, including my parents and opt for security rather than adventure, but I feel as if I’m cheating myself of life itself. I can’t say for sure what will happen or if I will regret the decisions I have made in the future, none of us can, but I need to look inside myself and find an answer to this question before I feel like it is too late
-Calaber24p