How to Grasp the Life-Altering Power of the Here And Now
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. “ — Annie Dillard
I recently had my mind blown by a simple idea that involved used pickle jars and short notes. I think you’ll be equally impressed as well.
On a recent podcast, author and storyteller Bob Goff explained a plan he's been working on for years and even decades. As a highly celebrated public speaker, Bob has had the opportunity to travel all over the world. He truly leads an incredible and exciting life. A lawyer by trade, he is the founder of Love Does and is the Honorary Consul to the Republic of Uganda.
He also has become an expert at learning how to make the most of his days.
On this podcast, Bob explained that whenever he travels to a new country, he brings along an empty pickle jar and some scratch paper. While on his journey, he’ll write notes to his kids and grandkids and stuff them in the pickle jar. Then, at some point along his trip, he’ll bury the pickle jar somewhere in that country and record the longitude and latitude lines of where he buried the secret treasure.
But here’s the best part: he’s added a section to his will with all of the coordinates of all of the buried pickle jars around the world.
When the time comes for Bob to pass on from this life, he wants to leave his kids with one last final challenge — a grand scavenger hunt around the world, a trip that they are meant to take together uncovering jar after jar of love and intentionality from their father.
Talk about a legacy.
This idea would be absolutely, astronomically amazing, even if this was the only idea or plan that Bob has put into motion. But it’s not. It’s just one of many ways that Bob has worked to leverage his days.
You see, Bob knows the truth that writer Annie Dillard penned so well: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
He’s learned how to operate effectively within that truth, and as such, he is showing us an example of what life could look like if you and I were to do the same.
The Importance of a Schedule
“A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.” — Annie Dillard
I know a good number of people who just like to embrace life as it comes. They are open-handed, casual to the point of being cavalier, and profess to not be “worried about a thing.”
“Live in the moment” is popular cultural advice for how to be content and get the most out of life. There is a good bit of truth in the idea of appreciating what is right in front of you, of not looking so far into the future that you forget to admire the immediate and the right now.
However, as Annie Dillard points out — there’s a lot of good reason behind the idea of creating a schedule as well.
A schedule is anything that helps create some structure around your days. It can be a physical planner, an ongoing iPhone note, or an in-depth calendar full of appointments, reminders, and to-dos. Everyone has a slightly different relationship with organization, so the idea isn’t to fixate on what type of schedule you have; rather, it’s to understand the value of a schedule in the first place.
A schedule allows you to approach your days with purpose. It allows you to stand and craft the moments that come with specificity and intentionality.
Creating a schedule is important because it communicates to your brain that A) your time is valuable and B) your time today affects your time in the days ahead. You don’t schedule something unless you realize that your time is limited and you want to put some effort into organizing how you spend it.
The last, and perhaps greatest, reason why making a schedule is beneficial is that it allows you to track how you spend time. According to The Atlantic, the average American household watches 8 hours and 55 minutes of TV a day. Ask any family you know and they’d say this number is ridiculous and absolutely untrue. That’s because the average person doesn’t have a schedule that tracks how they spend their time.
Without a schedule, we tend to spend our time on what is most easily available. After all, we are creatures that tend, evolutionarily, towards the paths of least resistance. We like to conserve energy. Therefore, the idea of planning out our time can seem exhausting and difficult.
But it matters. If you were 60 and your cardiologist told you to start exercising or you’d be at risk of an imminent heart attack, you bet that you’d find the nearest gym and get after it.
So here’s your wake-up call. What you do today counts. It might not determine everything about your life, but today will lead into tomorrow and tomorrow will lead into next month and before you know it, you’ll be 60, sitting in the cardiologist’s office saying, “I never thought this would happen to me.”
A Lifeboat That Sails the Decades
“A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order — willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.” — Annie Dillard
It’s no secret that what you do today influences what you do tomorrow. When the timeframe is short, we tend to be better at seeing the direct connections. If you stay up too late tonight, you’ll be tired tomorrow. If you work out today, you may be sore tomorrow.
It’s harder for us to track how what we do today influences what happens next month, but even then, we still get some glimpses into this reality. If you buy a new expensive couch this month, it might mean that money is a little tight next month. If you sign up for higher education classes, it will likely lead to a busier schedule over the upcoming weeks.
But here comes the hard part: associating your day today with what ends up happening over the course of your lifetime. It’s difficult to see the connection between those two hours spent watching TV vs. reading a book and how that can impact you when your 65. Those associations are hazier, more disconnected in our brains.
Time wrecks us all. You may be young and moving towards what you consider your prime years, but as soon as you’re born, you are moving further away from the first date on your tombstone and moving closer to the second date.
That idea isn’t morbid. It’s not morose or melancholy. It’s truthful. It’s doesn’t mean you have to go through life living an Eeyore type of life, nor does it mean you have to suddenly go out and accomplish everything you’ve ever wanted within the next 21 days.
What it truly means is that there is power in today. There is power in the right now because your days are connected. Your schedule today becomes a lifeboat that you may find yourself standing on in ten, twenty or even thirty years.
You are constantly affirming or challenging your habits. Your brain creates neural networks associated with your behaviors which is why if you drive to work the same way every day, after enough morning drives, you’ll find that you can practically make the drive on autopilot.
The habits you allow to take root in the foundation of your schedule from an early age will greatly shape the trajectory of your life down the road.
Make a Plan, Work the Plan
I once heard a younger speaker share this phrase in relation to courting a potential spouse. I liked the idea behind it because it was simple and straightforward.
Make a plan, work the plan.
Bob Goff made a plan to take pickle jars with him all over the world, to leave behind a legacy that was greater than just a headstone and a few talks. But making the plan was just step one. He also had to work the plan.
Many of us can get hung up on our days. We can turn this concept into an excuse for perfectionism and intense anxiety over maximizing every single moment of our lives. The trick is to be measured. All work and no fun is a miserly way to live life. All fun and no work is equally as disastrous.
The goal is to strike the right balance between intentionality and spontaneity. Of seeing the associations between your habits today and your legacy later in life without allowing those associations to overwhelm or demoralize you.
I wrote recently that true wisdom is realizing both the longevity and the brevity of life. Most things don’t happen overnight, but some do. Discerning what falls into which camp is what truly sets you apart.
Find a schedule that works for you. Find a rhythm of utilizing that schedule and start to track your time. You’ll likely find that with increased intentionality comes increased results.
You never know what may change your life, but as long as you’re paying good attention, you’ll likely catch a glimpse. You may not get the whole story right away, just as very few people truly get to measure their impact in the moment, but I can guarantee you that if you don’t think to look for it, you’ll never see it coming.