Don’t die at 25 but live until 75

Just like we have money goals, we should have life goals

Recently, I went out to lunch with some friends during work. The perfect way to chop up a work day. We were enjoying the meal and the company when the conversation shifted toward life and its purpose. My friend mentioned he was confused about the purpose of life now after college. What do we have to look forward to?  We, and 300 other million people, get up every day to work from 9-5 but really where is that taking us? What are we reasonably working towards? All fair questions and something that I certainly have struggled with.

You see you graduate college, or trade school, or whatever endeavor you undertake, and then you enter into the workforce. Expectations are maybe set forth on what it is expected to be but no one really knows. You have to experience it. It is different for everyone. No longer do we have very clear, objective goals somewhere down the pipeline. Life after college is no longer a defined path. 

Before that, the default path was pretty simple. Elementary school into middle school into high school and then you either work or go to school in some capacity. For most, it is college.

At that point in life, it is pretty clear, we are working towards a degree and each day we wake, we are trying to position ourselves to achieve that. Yes, in the moment, this test may seem goofy but it is all part of the process. A minor inconvenience on the way to a larger goal.

Most importantly, our life is clear and defined. We have a semblance of a routine and a larger goal that we work towards giving us peace of mind that each waking day means something.

For most, from age 0-22, life is a well-designed video game. Life has levels and with each level we beat, we level up but upon exiting that age range, the levels become murky. No longer do we have regular milestones to look forward to and the lack of milestones leads to a void of purpose in our lives. Humans need purpose in their lives. It gives structure to an ever-changing, confusing, and innovative world. 

The Beauty of Sports

Part of the reason we love professional sports is there is a very clear, defined path to the life of an athlete and how we measure their success. Sports have a purpose. The age-old debate of Lebron v. Jordan is something that everyone has an opinion on. 

Imagine. Image courtesy of the Foreward.

The basis of people's debate is largely built on milestones that each player has and hasn’t reached. 

• Jordan has won six rings, or championships, while Lebron has only won four

• Lebron has scored 6,000 more points but also has played almost 350 more games

• Lebron has more playoff appearances and arguably, the greatest finals performance coming from 3-1 down to beat the Golden State Warriors

• Sometimes people like to go the subjective root and say Jordan was a much more clutch player and did not fold in the game’s biggest moments or playoffs

Who’s the GOAT? Image courtesy of ESPN.

The beauty of sports is there are milestones and explicit ways to measure success. Championships, all-star appearances, season awards, etc. all provide a very clear way to measure success, which plays into a larger purpose. 

We judge younger players based on the different levels they reach along the way and this guides us to how great they may be or what their purpose in the NBA may become. It mirrors that of a video game. There are levels to it. Are they a role player, a future all-star, or could they end up in the greatest of all time convo next to Lebron and MJ?

Milestones and Routines

We need milestones, or goals, in our life as they play into a greater purpose and help life feel more like the video game that it is. Life is no different than sports. Milestones feed into a routine as a routine provides a continual way to measure the success of a day, month, or year. Routines provide structure. An objective way to measure a day.

“I have cleaned the house, went to the grocery, and planted new bushes to get the landscaping where I want it to be.” or “This year I did my first triathlon, got the job promotion I wanted, and finally paid off my car.” All these things are a byproduct of a routine that helps lead to reaching the larger milestone, which in turn provides purpose. 

One of the places in which we always have milestones set forth is with money. I want six figures in my bank account. I wish to buy this car by this age. I want to make X% on my money this year. We develop routines and set forth milestones for our finances. Everyone has plans for their money.

However, in life beyond college, outside of money, those milestones can be severely lacking. Popular goals in place beyond college include kids, marriage, retirement, and paying off a mortgage but life is more than owning equity in a home and retiring to a beach when you are 65. 

Marriage and kids are great goals, something that is undoubtedly on the top of my list, but milestones shouldn’t be just confined to those things and for some, those goals are a slow build and farther down the line. Let’s first reach the level of a boyfriend/girlfriend.

The Levels of Life

It would be naïve to start and try to conquer the highest level. The skills, experiences, and resources needed to succeed are simply not there yet. The chase to just reach those milestones quickly without a clear plan or defined levels along the way will just be a time of continual disappointment. It is important to set those milestones and then define the path to getting there.

Life is a game of levels. We are always actively working towards leveling up but that can be hard to see with no milestones set forth. After the conversation and creation of this post, I sat down and thought of some milestones for my life. 

• Visit Europe again next summer and hit three different countries (Greece, Croatia, and Italy seem to be the three)

• 200 trade occurrences in my stock trading account by the end of 2023

• Grow my Twitter to 250 followers by the end of the year

• Become fluent in Spanish by the end of 2024 (still working on how to best measure this)

• Snatch 225 pounds by the end of the year

I know the degree of difficulty of each and what it may take to reasonably get there. There is something I could be doing each day of my existence to try and make it happen. I know the levels to them. It helps to feed into the greater purpose of my life. I now have clear, objective goals that I can constantly measure against to help me understand what the purpose of my days may be.

Parting Words

If there is anything that life has taught me, it’s that life is short. It is important to pay attention to the time you have but it can also be hard to see the purpose of some of the days. Paying attention to the time we have is so important. 

Don’t burn the days of life and don’t wait. Don’t wait for a purpose or milestones in life to come to you. Go out and find them and start small. Set small levels you wish to beat and large levels you one day hope to conquer. Work to beat the levels of life just as you would a video game. A lack of milestones in life is a breeding ground for continual confusion and a perpetual search for the purpose. Don’t wait because the last thing you want to do is die at 25 but live until 75.

Thanks for reading.

Scantron’s Selections - A few things I loved this Week

• Paul Graham - Life is Short - Always a good reminder

• The Diary of A CEO - Ramit Sethi - Finances really don’t have to be that hard

• Founders - Arnold Schwarzenegger - Written through the eyes of a former girlfriend.