47. Living A Long Life

Recently, I did a 5-week road trip across the Nordics, primarily Norway. Every day was different. I was in a new place doing new things. I’m someone who spends a lot of time in my head, and most of that time is spent on the future. When I travel, I’m mostly thinking about what I am going to do today. Travel has always been a nice way for me to live in the present. Even 2 weeks into the trip, it felt like I had been on the road for a long time.

Roadside stop in Northern Norway

I’m starting to believe that living more years is not living a long life. We have enough time in this world if we use it wisely. It’s short, but it’s enough. One of the things you can do to live a long life is to slow down the perception of time and live as many different days as possible.

One of the reasons childhood feels longer is because of all the firsts. Mostly everything we did was for the first time. School, travels, friends, experiences. Once we reached adulthood, life became repetitive.

If you are living the same day over and over again, it will feel like time is moving fast when you remember it. The best way to extend your life is to kill the routine. Make every day different. When we create novelty, we also pay better attention to life. When living the same day over and over again, we probably take things around us for granted and don’t really observe the world around us deeply. When we are doing new things, we tend to observe more.

Travelling is not the only way to do it. Try new things, however small they are. Become a beginner. Do something just for fun. It need not lead to a productive outcome. Learn a skill that’s completely useless by societal standards.

Of course, most meaningful things in life also require routine and consistency. But if you are living life on autopilot, living the same day over and over again, it will feel like life is short.