One day you will do something for the last time without knowing it
Bodies weaken with age and accidents can intervene any day, yet many cherished plans end simply because people wait too long.
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell · When This Number Hits 5200 - You Will be DeadAs people grow older, their bodies wear down, and most deaths from cancer happen after age 70. Even apart from illness and frailty, no one is guaranteed more time, because every day brings so many small risks that someone, somewhere, dies by accident that day.
Talk of a last time sounds eerie, like something reserved for death row or extreme old age. In fact final encounters with a place, habit, or person often pass without notice, and ordinary plans quietly end that way.
The examples are deliberately small. There are the boxes of small plastic model soldiers from a tabletop game called Warhammer, bought to paint and left unfinished. There is the favorite spot from a great trip years ago, always meant to be revisited. There is the sport set aside with plans to restart it and meet new friends, and the person you meant to reach out to long ago but never did.
Life is busy and complicated, and choices among people and pleasures are hard, so those intentions keep slipping. Thinking about the future from time to time can help bring attention back to what matters and leave fewer regrets when looking back, because time not used today may not be available tomorrow.
As limits from the coronavirus pandemic eased, many of the things people had taken for granted, from travel to restaurants to seeing friends, became possible again. The closing suggestion is simple: contact an old friend, or someone you might befriend, and say you look forward to spending time together.
Questions people ask
Is it really true that most cancer deaths happen after 70?
Yes. In the United States and many other wealthy countries, the majority of cancer deaths occur at age 70 and older, because the risk of most cancers rises sharply with age. That is why screening and age are so closely linked in cancer statistics.
What are Warhammer minis?
They are small plastic model soldiers and monsters sold by the British game company Games Workshop. Hobbyists assemble, paint, and then use them to play tabletop battle games, and painting them is famously time consuming.
How can I keep track of the little things I keep postponing?
Pick three unfinished intentions and give each a next step with a date, such as texting one friend this week or booking one trip. Research on implementation intentions finds that a specific when and where makes follow through much more likely than a vague goal.