Put a Countdown Clock on Your Life
Put a countdown clock on your life: if you are twenty and expect to live to ninety, set an app to seventy years, hit start, and watch the numbers count down every day so you feel that your time is finite.
Dandapani says most people do not realize how precious and finite life is, and that realizing it is what creates the intensity to focus on who you are and what you want. He lays out the sequence of goal, then path, then surroundings, gives a five minute morning practice for getting to know yourself, and offers the countdown clock as the impetus to actually begin.
What this talk covers
- People do not realize how precious life is, and once you do realize it, the intensity of wanting to focus on who you are and what you want follows.
- People tell him they are on a spiritual path and cannot say where it is going, which he compares to getting in a car with no destination and turning left or right because it feels good.
- You cannot know the path until you know the destination, so figure out the goal first, then build the pillars and environment that keep you on the path to it.
- To get to know yourself, wake up without engaging the outside world through devices, shower, then sit quietly for five minutes each day asking yourself what you want and what you are passionate about, writing the answers in a journal as a ritual you do not break.
- When a man told him he knew he needed to do this but did not, Dandapani told him to get an app, put in the years he expects to have left, hit start, and watch the countdown each day.
Get an app, put a countdown. If you're 20 years old, just say you live up to 90 years old. So put 70 years in there and hit start.Dandapani
Questions
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He suggests a countdown clock. Get an app, estimate the years you have left, for example seventy years if you are twenty and expect to live to ninety, hit start, and watch the numbers count down every day. Seeing that you do not have much time left is the impetus to act.
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Wake up and do not engage with the outside world through your electronic devices. Shower, sit somewhere quiet in your home for five minutes with your eyes closed, no book and no podcast, and ask yourself the same questions daily about what you want, where you are going, and what makes you happy. Write the answers in a little journal.
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Because life is not brief but it is finite, and realizing that is what generates the intensity to focus on who you are and what you want. He uses it himself as the impetus to do what he wants to do in life.
Transcript
684 words · 3:03
People don't realize how precious life is, can go away and then twinkle over the eye. And once you realize how precious it is, then comes the intensity of wanting to focus on who you are and what you want in life. That last part is interesting, the final, you know, so who you are, the path you're on, and then it's final. And it's final end. Because every path takes you somewhere.
Yeah, and you should know where you're going, not just be following it for no end. I'm in the monk business, right? People come up to me all the time and say, I'm on the spiritual path. And they go, like, where's your spiritual path going?
No, I don't know. And I said, when was the last time you got in a car and said, I'm going for a drive without any direction, any destination?
I think I'll take a left over here. I'll drive for another two miles. Maybe I'll hang a right here. Why?
Because it feels good. You don't. You get in the car, you know where you're going, and then you figure out the path to get there.
So why is it any different when it comes to life? But you can't know the path until you know the destination. Figure out the goal first.
The goal defines the path. then you build your pillars or your surroundings, your environment to help you stay on the path to get to the goal.
But you have to start with the destination first. To that 20 year old that's out there watching us right now, listening to us, from anywhere in the world
who doesn't know what they wanna do in their life, who's thinking maybe the monastery is the place, maybe it's not, maybe the business world is the place. What advice do you give to them
about how they can try to find that answer out? I would say create a routine in the morning. And the best routine is wake up, don't engage with the outside world
using your electronic devices. Wake up, shower, go sit down somewhere in your home quietly for five minutes each day. Close your eyes.
Don't read a book. Don't listen to podcasts. This is your time with you and you only. And get to know yourself.
Ask yourself questions of what do I want? Where do I want to go in life? What makes me happy? Who makes me happy?
What am I passionate about? And keep asking yourself these same questions over and over again every day for five minutes in the morning.
Write down your answers in the little journal, and make this a ritual that you don't break. Now I can guarantee you after a few weeks, after a few months, you'll really get to know yourself
and you'll start to figure out what's important in your life. Once you know then what's important in your life, you can figure out your goal.
Your goal defines your path and then your path defines your surroundings, how you wanna create your life around you. And this is the greatest gift you can give yourself,
but you need to take that step. And the greatest impetus for doing that is to realize that life is finite, that you're only here on this planet,
not for a brief, not for a short amount of time, but for a finite amount of time. And for me, I use that as an impetus to do what I want to do in life. Because someone once said to me in an event I spoke at and disled off recently, I know I need to do this, but I don't.
So what do you recommend? I said, well, tell yourself every day, I have a clock that's ticking. Get an app, put a countdown. If you're 20 years old, just say you live up to 90 years old.
So put 70 years in there and hit start. And every day, just watch that numbers countdown. you realize that you don't have much time left.