Think about it…🤔

The universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.

Scientists’ best guesses peg the age of the earth at 4.5 billion years old… 👨‍🔬

And it looks like modern humans came onto the scene about 300,000 years ago.

Carl Sagan helped put this into perspective with his concept of the “Cosmic Calendar.” 

Let’s say all of existence, as we know it, takes place over the course of a single calendar year. 🗓

The Big Bang would have happened at the very first second of January 1st…💥

Earth would have come into existence on September 6th…

But modern humans wouldn’t have arrived on the scene until December 31st, at 11:44 pm.

In other words, we’re very late arrivers.

But it goes deeper than that too…

In our galaxy alone…

There are likely between 800 billion and 3.2 trillion planets.

Some estimates put the number of inhabitable planets at 8 trillion!

Pretty staggering, right?

But here’s the thing…

It’s estimated that there are upwards of two trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

—

So, why am I sharing this?

Because I want you to understand something crucial:

The odds of you ever being born are infinitely small.

We joke about people having a better chance of winning the lottery than “X”…

But when it comes to your existence right now…

There’s a better chance of someone winning the lottery every day for an entire year (probably an entire lifetime)…

Than there is of you having ever been born.

It’s staggering.

And, on top of all this…

Not only were you born on this planet (a one out of a gajillion longshot),

But you were born at this exact time in human history.

Think of all the wars, diseases, and disasters that could have wiped your ancestors out…

Think of the entire chain of evolutionary events that could have ended in disaster for your DNA…

Then think about how, up until the last hundred years, at best…

The vast majority of people born on this earth entered a world of poverty, suffering, and pain.

Feudal serfs didn’t become merchants or kings…

Slaves almost always remained slaves…

And, in the words of Thomas Hobbes,

Life for the vast majority of the human species was “nasty, brutish, and short.”

And yet, here you are today.

In a world where you can do anything and be anything that you want.

Seriously. You really can.

But it’s up to you to make the most of this opportunity.

And here’s the thing…

The countdown timer is running.

Because one day, in the not too distant future…

You will die.

It could be coronavirus, sure…

But it could also be: 

A car crash, a tornado, cancer, a freak fall, a clogged blood vessel, food poisoning, a helicopter crash, a gunshot wound, a spider bite, diabetes, choking on a dinner roll, or one of a million other things.

And this shouldn’t depress you.

It should inspire the HELL out of you.

Why?

Because while the future is entirely uncertain…

What is known…

Is that right now, at this very moment, you are alive and you are breathing. 

And you have the entire world at your fingertips.

But it’s up to you to figure out what you do with this opportunity.

For me, personally…

I’m spending my “blip on the radar” doing the following…

Teaching, writing, creating, loving, mentoring, moving, and smiling.

And my goal is to leave the world a better place than it was when I entered it…

So that even after my little “blip” on the cosmic calendar is finished…

There’s a long-tail effect.

More blips…

Carrying forward like links in a chain…

Something that stretches onward for as long as human life continues to exist.

What about you?

What are you doing to make the most of this incredible gift you’ve been given?

Honestly, I’d love to know.

 

– SPG

P.S. Maybe you believe that you have a purpose and that God put you here for a reason. I think that’s entirely possible. But even so – I’d still ask: what do you think that purpose is? How are you living it out?

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.