I think it’s the most beautiful photo ever taken.
Every single one of those bright specks in the picture following is an entire galaxy. Every single one of those specks is another collection of hundreds of thousands of stars.
And there is nowhere else in the deep distant universe where our species exists. Nowhere else we can breathe air, drink water, eat plants. Nowhere else we can find people to meet, fall in love, and make babies.
We live on the only place that can possibly support life.
Carl Sagan said, “It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
We live on the pale blue dot. And it’s a beautiful dot. So on this planet, on the only planet in the universe where we can live, we get to be alive. You have to remember that most people who have ever lived on Earth are dead.
There are about 7 billion people on Earth today and 115 billion people who have ever lived in the history of the world. That means 108 billion people are dead. Most people have already lived their lives. Put another way: Fourteen out of every fifteen people who have ever lived will never see another sunset again, have a bowl of chocolate ice cream, or kiss their kids good night. Fourteen out of every fifteen people will never stroll by the smell of their neighbor barbecuing, flip to the cold side of the pillow before sleeping in on a Sunday, or blow out the flickering candles of a birthday cake in a dark kitchen surrounded by their closest friends.
Being alive means you’ve already won the lottery.
You are among the wealthiest people in the entire world. The average world income is five thousand dollars. Are you higher than that? Then you’re in the top 50%. And if you’re higher than fifty thousand dollars you’re in the top 0.5%. Do you need much more than 99.5% of people alive? You either have the money to buy this book or you have the time to read it. Either way, you have it good!
You already have more than almost everybody on the planet.
On your very worst days, you have to push your negative thoughts. You have to take a step back. You have to remember the lottery.
Because you’ve already won.
Do Anything
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
—THE NUMBER ONE REGRET OF THE DYING, REPORTED BY A PALLIATIVE NURSE IN THE GUARDIAN
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
—STEVE JOBS
Remind yourself. Nobody built like you. You design yourself.
—JAY Z
Secret #4
The Dream We All Have That Is Completely Wrong
1
The terrible tragedy of Mr. Wilson
He’s dead.”
Staring in shock at my high school Guidance Department secretary, I thought that it couldn’t be true. I’d just talked to him last week.
“It happened so suddenly,” she whispered, tears shining through thick glasses, glossy red lips quivering silently in slow motion. “I am so sorry.”
Mr. Wilson was my guidance counselor. He had a shiny head holding two fluffy-cloud patches of gray hair on the sides and wore thick glasses and loose-fitting gray T-shirts while helping students with timetables, college applications, and personal problems.
Everybody loved Mr. Wilson.
I talked to him about summer jobs and he calmed me down during exams. He had a quiet, big-picture worldview that helped us get above ourselves and see beyond life in our hometown.
You could tell Mr. Wilson loved his job by the way his eyes twinkled as he bounced through the halls, spouting hellos and high-fiving students, calling everybody by name. He was always smiling, and our school was his home.
Back when I was in high school, the government had mandatory retirement. You turned sixty-five and poof! The government yanked you out of the workforce in a cloud of smoke and moved you straight on to old-age pension. You had no choice. And let’s face it—almost everybody wanted to retire way before sixty-five, anyway. TV ads preached “Freedom 55” with gray-haired couples skipping town to swim at the cottage, play golf, and sail into the sunset.
Retirement is a good thing. A great thing! What everybody wants, dreams about, wishes for, over and over and over and over . . . until it finally comes.
Do whatever, whenever, wherever . . . forever?
Sounds like a good deal!
The funny thing is that when Mr. Wilson retired . . . he didn’t look happy. None of us did. We had the big celebration with cake, music from the band, and teary speeches from former students. It was like the final scene in Mr. Holland’s Opus. Mr. Wilson said he was excited to be retiring, but his thin smile and wet eyes said the opposite.
But mandatory retirement came at age sixty-five . . . and so he retired.
The next week he had a heart attack and died.
2
Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt agree on this
Thomas Jefferson said, “Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any.”
Teddy Roosevelt said, “The best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
Former Esquire editor Martha Sherrill said, “I often think about dogs when I think about work and retirement. There are many breeds of dog that just need to be working, and useful, or have a job of some kind, in order to be happy. Otherwise they are neurotically barking, scratching, or tearing up the sofa. A working dog needs to work. And I am a working dog.”
So what kind of dog are you?
If you like thinking, if you like trying, if you like creating, if you like teaching, if you like learning, if you like connecting, then chances are good you’re a working dog, too. And what do working dogs do?
They work.
They never give up.
They never stop doing.
They never retire.
If you like neurotically barking, scratching, and tearing up the sofa, let’s chat. Because the truth is, you always need to do something. Something different, something interesting, something you love.
But let me tell you another secret.
You need an ikigai first.
3
What can the healthiest one-hundred-year-olds in the world teach us?
Men and women in Okinawa live an average of seven years longer than Americans and have the longest disability-free life expectancy on Earth. Ancient Chinese legends call these sandy islands popping out of the sparkling blue East China Sea “the land of the immortals.” This is where a ninety-six-year-old defeated a former boxing champ in his thirties. This is where a 105-year-old killed a poisonous snake with a flyswatter. There are more people over a hundred years old there than anywhere.