Tim Urban had a popular post a few years ago where he plotted the lifespan of a human in tiny squares where each square is a week and he plotted major life events on that.
The idea was to give the reader a perspective of their life when looked at in its entirety. To highlight that each week is precious and that we ought to use the short time that we have wisely.
This perspective can only be had when we look at the big picture, which is the finiteness of our lifespan. Then, we can understand the impact of any individual week as a finite resource consumed.
Tim Urban's hope is that when we look at our lives this way, we will want to spend our weeks in ways that are meaningful to us in the longer term.
The long term is just a sum of several short terms.
We can't hope for a different outcome in the long term if what we do in the short term doesn't match up on a consistent basis.
And we only understand this nuance when we look at the big picture.
I usually take time at the end of the year, in December, to take a longer term view and to revisit the big picture, so that I can re-align my short term, the individual weeks, to match it.
Are you planning your 2021?
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