The Currency of Your Life

We don’t get to keep time. We only get to spend it. A quiet reflection on presence, change, and what really fills you up.

Lately, I’ve felt time shifting in subtle ways.
Friends are moving into new phases. My brother just had a kid. My parents are getting older.
Nothing urgent, but things are changing. And it’s made me wonder if I’m paying attention to the time I do have.

I’m not in a rush. I’m not trying to overhaul my life.
But I am becoming more aware of how quickly things move, how easy it is to slip into autopilot.
We show up, we go through the motions, we call it a day. And then we do it again.

But when you zoom out, when you start to think about time as a limited resource, it hits differently.
You start asking quieter, deeper questions:
Am I spending my time in a way that reflects the kind of life I want to live?
Not in some optimized, hyper-productive way, but in a human way. A meaningful way. A way that feels like living.

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A few weeks ago, I made a chart. Nothing fancy, just a simple grid.
It shows every month from age 25 (where I am now) to 100 (where I’d like to get).
That’s 900 months in total.

I shaded in the ones I’ve already lived, 24 full years and most of my 25th.
What’s left is a wall of empty boxes. Still a lot of life, hopefully. But also… not infinite.

I don’t keep this hanging on my wall. I’m not crossing off months like it’s some kind of to-do list.
But making this was a good reminder. A check-in. A way to ask myself:

If I’m lucky enough to fill in the rest of these boxes… what kind of life will I have lived?

Here’s the chart. Pretty basic stuff. Each row has 12 boxes. I turn 26 next month, hence the one remaining white box. Scroll through to keep reading my article, but notice how fast it goes.

Months remaining from Age 25 to Age 100.

This isn’t about grinding.
I’m not here to tell you to optimize every hour or fill every box with big accomplishments.
Honestly, I think we’ve been sold this idea that “living fully” means doing more, chasing more, becoming more.

But I think it’s simpler than that.
It’s about noticing.
Noticing the life you’re already in.
Noticing what matters to you, and gently steering more of your time in that direction.

Robin Williams said it best in Dead Poets Society:
“Suck the marrow out of life.”
And I love what Matthew McConaughey said once, too. He wishes more people were “full of themselves,”
as in, doing what fills them up and makes them feel alive.

That’s what this is about. Not pressure. Not performance. Just presence.

For me, it’s not about perfection, it’s about alignment.
Some weeks, I’m juggling work, relationships, training, side projects, family, and rest.
Some days I get it right. Some days I don’t. But I try to come back to the question:

Am I using my time in a way that reflects the kind of life I want to live?

It’s hard to balance everything: health, career, friendships, your passions, your people.
But I think of what Nick Bare says often: If it matters to you, you’ll make time.
And I believe that. Not in a guilt-trip way, but in an empowering one.
Because we all have the same 24 hours. The same boxes to fill.
And the way we spend them… becomes the life we live.

You don’t need to map out your next ten years.
You don’t need to optimize every minute of every day.
But you do owe it to yourself to ask:

Am I paying attention to the time I’ve been given?

Because time is the currency of your life.
You’re spending it either way.
The question is, are you spending it on what matters?