What’s Your Second Number?

Let’s try a little project.  Take note of these two numbers:  27,720 and 13,373.

The first number is the number of days, as of this writing (2/17/2018), that I have been alive.  That’s 39,916,800+ minutes, 2,395,000,000+ seconds.  Rather sobering numbers, wouldn’t you agree?  If you think they are sobering, you should see them from this side!

The second number is the number of days I have left.  You see, I have decided to live to 112.5.  So today, six weeks short of 76, I’ve got 32.5% of my life left – also a sobering number.

Since we’re throwing around numbers, here is another one:  97.7%.  That’s the percentage of people reading this who think I’m nuts, whacko.

Why would anyone want to live to 112.5?  Or even 100, for that matter.

I can guess your thoughts –  images of walkers and wheelchairs, oxygen tubes and osteoporosis, nursing homes and needles.

I use to tease my two grown children with this.  I’d tell them that it’s payback time and that I intend to reach the 3-D time of my life – dementia, drool and Depends.  They didn’t think it was funny then – and I don’t now.  

So why such a screwy, arbitrary number like 112.5?

Here’s my nutty, whacko logic.

First, the feasibility of living a healthy life to 100 or beyond began to blossom as a real possibility in my mind about ten years ago as I dove headlong into learning about my biology and how it works.  I found tons of research supporting the simple fact that there is no biological reason that our bodies shouldn’t last well beyond 100 years.  (Visit my August 2017 blog on this here.)

The 112.5 is simple – at 75, I decided I still wanted a third of my life ahead of me because there is so much more that I want to accomplish in making my future bigger than my past.  I now understand and believe that age doesn’t define my usefulness and what I want to do isn’t age-related. So I upped my number from 100.

My immediate circle now all accept me as certifiably nuts.

But the why or the how of living to 100 is a subject for another day.  I want to use the idea to share with you how it has helped me rediscover and begin to apply an important principle in my life – one that I hope you will find helpful.

What’s your second number?

Have you thought about it?  If you are 40 or under, probably not.  Based on an average lifespan of around 80 today, your second number is most likely still larger than the first.  You’re too busy striving, achieving, slaying corporate dragons, trying to balance all that life is throwing at you to worry about something like this.

But a funny thing happens on this road called life –around age 50 – usually with the arrival of the first piece of AARP junk mail.  The realization that there are more days behind you than in front of you takes on significance.

It’s a time when thoughts of legacy creep in – what am I going to leave that has meaning?  It’s when Peggy Lee now becomes relevant again – “Is This All There Is?”  It’s when we begin to have thoughts like: “If I walked into my own funeral, would I like what the eulogies said about me?  Or, will there even be a eulogy?”

What is your second number?

The truth:  I really don’t know mine – you don’t know yours.  We all know we are but a heartbeat away.

So why bother setting a second number?  For me, it’s just simply a goal I’ve put out there that has motivated me to study and learn about aging, about what it takes to make this body work at its best – and to last.  To put more years in my life so I can put more life in my years.

Underlying all that for me are 5- and 6-year old grandsons that I want to teach how to flyfish, to play golf with and to see graduate from college.  And a marvelously beautiful and creative 8-year old granddaughter that is going to leave a massive footprint that I hope I can witness and participate in.

If you’re a bit whacko like me and have actually set one, guess what?

Your second number and my second number are the same. 

Our second number is – now!  One!  This very moment! Today!

Author Jeff Olson, in his wonderfully powerful book “The Slight Edge”, reminds us that there is no someday, only today.  Our greatness, our destiny lies in our moments of decision – the decisions we make moment to moment.

What I’ve discovered is that a concern with either a first or second number rides on a dangerous wind.

Dredging up the first number may carry with it regrets, remorse, blame, and bitterness.   Carl Sandberg said it best: “It’s a bucket of ashes – to be thrown out.”

Thoughts of a dwindling second number ride that same dangerous wind –  the potential for fear, impatience, even ignoring life’s earlier lessons.

The only thing that determines what our second number will produce is this very moment.

My second number is now.  Your second number is now.  Our second number together is “carpe diem” – to seize the day.  Our second number is the “moment of decision” – what we think and do with our next heartbeat.

We are the ax.  We are the saw. Our moment of decision, our second number, is how we sharpen them.   Let’s have it serve us well.